


Project Hell

by Hashtagmavin



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, baby project, implied sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-10
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-04 05:16:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1076966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hashtagmavin/pseuds/Hashtagmavin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(High School AU) Michael hates Gavin. Always has and always will. But when he’s forcibly paired up with him for a Life Science project, he has to push all of that aside so that they can take care of a fake baby doll together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at Hashtagmavin.tumblr.com

Michael Jones hated Gavin Free.

The entire school was aware of this fact, even Gavin himself.

If you asked him why, he wouldn’t actually be able to give you a legitimate answer. He just hated the kid, and that’s all there was to it. He hated his stupid British accent, his dumb hair, his ridiculous made up words, and the fact that everybody else seemed to adore him.

Gavin hated him too, but not to the extent that Michael did. In fact, he thought Michael’s hatred was amusing. They happened to have a lot of mutual friends, such as Lindsay, Ray, Barbara, etc. They were actually really good friends with all of the same people, but Michael refused to ever hang out with Gavin. Lindsay would invite him to go to the movies with all of them, and the first question out of his mouth would be, “Is Gavin going to be there?” Needless to say, his arrival depended on her answer.

Sometimes Gavin would try to talk to him, saying foolish things like “Hello, Michael! How has your day been?” in a smug tone just because he knew that his very presence was pissing him off.

If he knew his other friends wouldn’t get pissed at him, he would not hesitate to punch that British prick in the face.

Which is why he hated going to Life Science class.

Life Science was the only class that they had together. Michael went out of his way to make sure he sat on the opposite side of the room from Gavin, even if it meant not being able to sit with Ray and Lindsay (who were also in the class.) It didn’t matter to him, he had other friends to pretend he cared about as much as them. Besides, asking Ray and Lindsay if they would sit with him instead would just cause them to roll their eyes and tell him to just suck it up and sit with them.

On this particular day, when he walks into the classroom, the three are already sitting in the back together so Michael opts to sit near the front, only a few seats away from the teachers desk.

Mr. Burns was the type of teacher that everybody liked. The girls all had crushes on him and would swoon over him all class and the guy’s appreciated his lack of strict teaching methods. Unlike most other teachers, Mr. Burns just didn’t bother yelling at students for misbehaving. Mainly because students liked him enough to not want to misbehave.

Besides, he teaches Life Science. Michael figures it’s a pretty slack class. They spend a lot of their time doing dumb little projects and quizzes that he could A+ with his eyes closed.

"Okay, class!" Mr. Burns announces as he walks into class carrying a huge blue Tupperware container. "It’s that time of year again. Time for the infamous baby project."

A few in the class let out an annoyed groan. The baby project is what the Life Science class is basically known for. It was the sole reason for Michael not wanting to take this class and trying everything he could to get out of it. But, of course, he had schedule conflicts and no other classes could fill the slot.

The large blue container takes up a large portion of his desk when he sets it down on top, and then pulls off the lid.

"This," he states as he pulls a baby doll out of the container, "Is going to be your baby for the next four days."

Some of the girls in class start excitedly chattering with their friends about what the babies will be like and what they’ll name it. Michael wants nothing to do with this project.

"When it cries, it’s  _your_  job to figure out what’s wrong with it.”

"How do we stop it’s crying?" a curious student in the back asks.

"There are a few ways. Along with the baby you each get a small car-seat for easier travel, a baby bottle, and two diapers. The bottle is magnetized so that when you hold it to it’s mouth, the doll registers it and begins to drink. When it laughs, that means that it’s done. The diapers are the same way and when you change the diaper to the other one, then it will stop crying as well."

"What happens if we just let it cry and decide not to give a shit about it?" somebody questions.

"Then you fail," Mr. Burns smirks and rolls his eyes, "You all know that this is the main project for this class. It’s a large percentage of your overall grade, so failing it would not be in your favor."

"You can turn the baby on and off by opening up the panel in it’s back and flipping the switch. If you ever need to turn it off because of an emergency, you can use that switch. But  _only_ for an emergency. If you don’t have a good reason for doing so, then you automatically fail. It will turn off on it’s own during school hours so that you won’t have to take it to school.”

"We can’t take it to school?"

  
"Nah," he shrugs, "Some teachers make you, but I don’t see the point. If you had a real baby you wouldn’t take it to high school with you. It’ll turn off an hour before school starts and will turn on an hour after school ends. That should give you plenty of time to get back to it."

"What if we have plans after school?"

"You can kiss your plans goodbye because now you’ve got a baby to take care of."

Mr. Burns uncaring attitude makes some students chuckle. He’s never been a teacher known to bullshit around and care about complaints that don’t make any sense. Of course, Michael just can’t help himself.

"This project is so pointless," he mutters, but he says it loud enough for Mr. Burns to hear him.

"Well I’m sorry you feel that way, Michael, but it is a required project. So you have to do it." he states, not even pretending to feel bad about it.

Michael scoffs and rolls his eyes, “What does it even prove? That babies are obnoxious and cry a lot? News flash, pretty sure we know that already.”

Mr. Burns lets out an irritated sigh, “Are you going to bitch and complain for the entire day?”

Michael raises an eyebrow at his language, but it’s not really anything out of the ordinary for Mr. Burns. Besides, he never bats an eye when a student curses in front of him. He’s actually one of the better teachers in the school when it comes to dealing with students.

"Yes."

Mr. Burns doesn’t respond with annoyance this time, instead he smirks in amusement as an idea forms in his head. Michael already regrets being stubborn because who knows what kind of punishment his Life Science teacher will force on him.

"Well then, I suppose I should give you some more material for that by partnering you up with somebody of my choosing."

Michael’s eyes widen when he realizes what this means. No amount of begging or apologizing for being an asshole is really going to get him out of this now. Every teacher and student knows which person he hates more than anybody else in the world.

"Not Gavin. Not Gavin. Not Gavin. Not Gavin." he continues to chant out loud, already knowing the horrible fate that his teacher will soon bestow upon him regardless.

"Hmmm," Mr. Burns pretends to think while looking around the classroom with his hands to his chin, "Who should I pick as  _Michael Jones’_  partner?”

Honestly, he couldn’t have just taken the stupid baby project without complaints? At least then he’d have a tolerable partner like Lindsay or Ray.

Of course, hearing Michael’s name causes Gavin to immediately loose interest in the conversation he was having with another student and his head snaps up to look at Mr. Burns. “Me! I’ll be his partner! Pick me, Mr. Burns! Pick me! Gavin!”

"Ah!" the teacher pretends the idea has just come upon him, "Gavin! Would you like to be Michael’s partner for this project?"

He doesn’t even hesitate, “Yes!”

"Perfect!" he beams, while pulling him up from his seat. Gavin has the biggest shit eating grin on his face as he’s dragged over by his elbow.

"Here’s your husband," the teacher states, leaving Gavin at Michael’s desk so that he can root through the box on his desk. He pulls out one of the dolls and a sheet of paper before coming over and putting both in front of the two. "And here’s your baby."

"You are the worst teacher ever," Michael glares at him.

"Have fun, boys," he snickers and then turns back to the front of the class, "Everybody else pick your partners and sit with them."

He tunes out the rest of the teachers instructions while Gavin noisily pulls a spare chair over to the desk so that he can sit as close as possible.

"Hello,  _Mr. Free_!” he giggles obnoxiously, knowing how much pain he’s causing the other boy.

"First of all, fuck you," Michael states, "And second off all, you must be pretty goddamn stupid if you think  _I_  would ever take  _your_  last name. You’d be Mr. Jones for sure.”

"I’ll be whoever you want me to be, love," he pretends to flirt just to irritate him further, and it’s apparent that it’s working.

"Shut the hell up," Michael glares at him before picking up the doll, "I don’t want to get a bad grade on this stupid project, so I’m not gonna fail just because you’re an incompetent moron."

Gavin looks almost offended, “I’m plenty good with babies!”

Michael somehow doubts that, and as if to prove it, he tosses the doll at him. Gavin’s taken off guard but quickly fumbles, trying to catch the thing. It ends up falling to the floor between their chairs.

"Yeah," Michael mutters, " _So_  good with babies.”

Gavin huffs and leans down to pick it up. Thank goodness it isn’t turned on yet or else they would have failed already for sure. “Yeah, well, you bloody threw it at me! I think throwing the baby in the first place makes you a much worse parent than me!”

"I was just testing your reflexes! Babies are bouncy little fuckers. What if he or she fell off the changing table or some shit? You’d be hopeless!"

"I’d be able to do it  _then_!” he argues back, “Not when you’re throwing the thing at me like it’s an American football!”

"It was a gentle toss," Michael scoffs, "Don’t be such a baby."

"Aren’t you excited to be my husband? We’re like partners in crime or something!" Gavin cries, completely disregarding their previous conversation.

"If you act like this for the majority of the project, I might actually strangle you."

"Michael!" he cries, his usual pronunciation of the name along with that whiny tone is like nails on a chalkboard to him.

"Will you shut the hell up?" he glares, trying to keep his voice quiet so that Mr. Burns won’t scold him for arguing with his "partner."

"I’m just trying to be a good partner! Both class wise  _and_ marriage wise.”

"We are not marriage partners. We are just two people stuck taking care of a stupid electronic baby for four days." Michael states strictly, already refusing to put up with any of Gavin’s ridiculous shit.

"A whole four days?"

"Yeah, that’s what Mr. Burns  _just_  told us.”

"Well, we should stay at my house."

Michael raises an eyebrow, “Why?”

"We have to pass in this doll on Monday, right?"

"Yeah," Michael nods, trying to figure out the days in his head, "It’s Thursday now, then we have to spend today, Friday, and the weekend with this thing. Then I’m home free from both this stupid doll and stupid  _you_.”

Gavin ignores the insult, “Geoff and Griffon are out of town and I’ve got the whole house to myself. They won’t be back until the Wednesday of next week so it wouldn’t be a problem. It’ll be easier to take care of the baby if we’re staying under the same roof and that way your parents don’t get disturbed.”

Michael must admit that it sounds like a pretty good plan. The only downside is the fact that he has to live with Gavin for four days. But it sure as hell beats having Gavin stay at his and annoy the hell out of his parents.

They could easily just do what most of the other students are doing. One person takes the baby one day, then the other takes it the next, then so on and so forth. But Michael actually wants to get a good grade in this, so leaving Gavin alone with the doll is pretty much out of the question.

"Yeah, that’s probably best. You can get a ride with me in my car and we’ll pop in to my house so that I can get some shit, and then we’ll crash at your place. And  _no_ , it is not a sleepover.”

Gavin doesn’t even seem to process the last sentence and just grins wide at the thought of a week long slumber party with the guy who hates him. “This is going to be fun!”

He rolls his eyes, knowing that no amount of arguing will convince Gavin otherwise.

"Hey, Michael?"

"What?"

"I know that you hate me and everything, but I think for the sake of the baby, we should be friends for this week." Gavin states, smiling at him contentedly.

"Friends?" Michael quirks an eyebrow.

"Yeah, we can put our differences and hate behind us, and just be two lads raising a fake baby together."

Michael doesn’t want to be anywhere  _near_ the line of being friends with Gavin Free. But it’s only been a few minutes into the project and all they’ve succeeded in doing is arguing. If being friends with him for this short amount of time means that this will all end with no murder charges on his behalf, then maybe it’s a good idea.

"Okay, fine," Michael relents after glaring at him suspiciously, "We can be _friends_  until the project is over. But after all of this, I am never speaking to you again.”

  
"Deal!" Gavin beams, and holds out his hand for a shake. Michael rejects him and instead turns his focus back to the information sheet.

Looking back on the agreement later when this is all over, Michael’s still not sure if he regrets accepting or not.

"Okay, everybody!" Mr. Burns gets the classes attention and holds up one of the spare dolls to demonstrate on, "Now that you’re all paired up and you’ve got your dolls, you can turn it on by opening the panel in it’s back and flipping the switch."

Michael flips the doll around and raises it’s little shirt. The panel is the same color as the rest of the baby and looks like a place where you’d put batteries in a child’s toy. As soon as he changes the switch to “on,” a happy gurgle is heard and it almost makes him drop the thing out of fright.

"It’s alive!" Gavin squeals excitedly.

Michael raises an eyebrow but turns the baby back around so that they can look at it’s face. Just a plastic baby dolls face, unmoving with cold plastic eyes. “This thing is creepy as hell.”

"For the rest of class, you and your partner can look over the information sheet," Mr. Burns states, once again proving how much of a slack class this is.

Of course Michael is still bitter about this entire thing. He hates Gavin Free and wants nothing more than to be as far away from him as possible. If he can survive the oncoming week, he’s fairly certain that he can survive just about anything. All he needs is a good mark on this project, so he’s just going to have to grit his teeth and bear it. Gavin’s an annoying asshole, but he isn’t worth failing a class over.

Mr. Burns is going around handing out the bottles that “feed” the babies and everybody gets one of the car seats so that it’s easier to travel and carry it around. This school really goes all out on stupid Life Science projects. But then again, it is one of the main projects for the course.

He looks over the information sheet, it states simple and obvious rules about how to take care of the doll. Figuring that they can read that later, he skips to the area where they have to fill out questions. Just stupid things like what the parents names are (he quickly scrawls his and Gavin’s names in the blank), what they’ll name it, and how they have taken care of it.

"I don’t think I really trust you with that thing," Michael mutters, watching as Gavin attempts to feed it with the bottle. Nothing happens, and it’s obviously because the kid isn’t hungry.

"Why not? I think I’d make a great dad."

Michael sighs and shakes his head in defeat. No matter how annoyed he is, he’s still going to be spending the next few days with this asshole and “their baby.” He might as well  _attempt_ to be nice to Gavin, even though it already sounds like an impossible task.

"What should we name it?" he questions, watching as Gavin eagerly studies every inch of the baby. He’s already taking this project too seriously.

"It’s not an "it", Michael." he argues, turning away from the doll to glare at him playfully.

"You just referred to it as an it, dumbass!"

"Only because you called it an it and now I’ve fallen into the habit!"

"I called it an it  _once_!”

Gavin sighs, resting the doll down on the desk, “This conversation is hurting my brain.”

"Figures." Michael mutters while rolling his eyes.

"Oi!" Gavin cries, his eyebrows furrowed, "What’s that supposed to mean?"

“ _OI! Wot’s that supposed to mean_?!” he mocks in a terrible British accent, and Gavin’s about to say something back but they’re interrupted by the teacher.

"Gavin! Michael! Behave yourselves."

Michael rolls his eyes. Out of all people he could have been paired with for this stupid project, it had to be Gavin. He skims through the project information sheet, looking for their dolls gender.

"According to the paper, it’s a boy."

“ _He’s_  a boy.”

"Shut the fuck up, Gavin. So, what should we call him?"

"How about Hamish?" he suggests happily.

"What?!"

"Hamish," he repeats, as he writes it down on the paper.

Michael looks at the name, and raises a brow, “Dude, that says  _Ham_ ish.” Pronouncing it as though its a pork product instead of their baby’s name.

"It’s  _Hamish_! And I think it’s a cute name.”

"Why can’t we name it something badass? Like Mogar?"

"I don’t think anybody in the history of ever has named their child Mogar."

"Well, they’re missing out."

"It’s dumb."

"No it’s not! It represents power! He’s like a mighty warrior. No kid on the playground would fuck with him if he had a name like Mogar."

"Fine, Mogar can be his middle name." He scrawls Mogar after the word Hamish.

"His last name is Jones."

"What?! Why does he get your last name?!"

"Because I said so! Hamish Mogar Jones sounds a lot better than Hamish Mogar Free!"

"What if it was like a combination of the two! Like… Joree or Frones!"

Michael gives him a blank look, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

"Fine, fine." He mutters and scrawls  _Free-Jones_  on the paper.

"Why does your name get to be first?!"

Gavin groans, “Fine!” while erasing the name and re-writing it to  _Jones-Free_. “Happy now?”

"Immensely." It’s only been five minutes and they’re already fighting. Michael already wants to stab his eyes out with forks. "Good thing this is just a doll and not a real kid."

Gavin hums as he thinks about it, “Could you imagine the two of us as gay parents?”

"I don’t want to."

"I think it’d be top! I think the kid would be awesome."

"I think the kid would be severely fucked up in the head."

Gavin ignores him and instead picks up the baby and starts cooing to it, “Hello there, Hamish Mogar Jones-Free!”

The baby gurgles happily.

"Look!" he grins at Michael, "He likes his name!"

It was going to be a long four days.


	2. Chapter 2

Somehow he manages he to pull Gavin from the school and to his car without getting pestered by their other friends. Of course they already know about their partnership, but he really isn’t in the mood for their teasing.

"I don’t know how to buckle him in, Michael," he whines from the backseat.

He rolls his eyes and doesn’t offer any assistance, just waiting in the front drivers seat for Gavin to finally finish so that they can leave. “Figure it out.”

A few moments of silence pass and the only noise is the metal of the seatbelt hitting plastic as he fumbles around with it.

"Got it!"

Michael raises an eyebrow, “Are you sure?” Buckling a child’s car seat shouldn't be that difficult of a task, but this is Gavin Free after all.

"Yes! He is all snuggled up and secure."

"Then hurry the hell up and put your own seat belt on."

"But I want to sit up front with you, Michael!" Gavin says, a hint of whining in his tone.

If he wasn’t in such a rush to get out of the school area he’d argue about it, but it’s right then that he sees Ray and Lindsay exiting the school with their own baby in tow. Mocking jokes about how he and Gavin are married is really not something he wants to hear right now.

"Okay, fine, just hurry the hell up." he snaps, and much to his annoyance, Gavin grins as he climbs into the front seat.

"You couldn’t have used the door?"

"Where’s the fun in that?" he laughs and then finally buckles up his own belt so that they’re ready to leave.

Michael gets them out of the school parking lot as quickly as he can. Ready to get the next few days started with so that they can end as quickly as possible.

Their ride is silent for a few moments until Gavin feels the need to make conversation.

"What do you want the baby to call you?" he questions curiously.

"What?"

"The baby! He has two dads. He can’t call us both dad because then we’d be all confused.”

"He can call me dad, and you mom." Michael smirks, but Gavin shoves him.

"I’m being serious. I don’t want Hamish to be confused about what to call us when he grows up."

Michael rolls his eyes and tightens his grip on the steering wheel, “He’s not going to fucking grow up. He’s a fucking doll and he can’t speak.”

"You’re ruining the illusion, Michael."

"Jesus Christ. He can call me daddy and you papa." he suggests, knowing that continuing with this argument will only succeed in pissing him off even more, "That good enough for you, papa?"

"Works for me, daddy!" Gavin grins happily while Michael grimaces.

"Don’t call me that in public. People will get the wrong idea."

Gavin doesn’t pay attention to him and instead reads the instructions on the hand-out they were given. Michael didn’t bother to read them earlier because he already knew the obvious things.

"No dumping the baby in water," Gavin reads out loud then turns confused, "Why not?"

"Because it’s an electronic doll, dumbass. It’ll break."

"Oh, well how do we wash him?"

"I don’t know," he shrugs uncaringly, "Baby wipes?"

"Good idea!"

Michael rolls his eyes. He just wants to get to his house, get his stuff, go to Gavin’s, and then get through this hell of a week as soon as possible.

"No holding the baby upside down, no leaving the baby unattended for long periods of time," Gavin continues to read, "This is all really easy stuff. I think we’re going to be great parents!"

"Yeah, because it’s so hard to take care of something that isn’t even a real baby. This project is stupid and I can’t wait for it to be over."

"I think it’ll be fun!" he grins, "We can bond and become best friends!"

"No way, we have already agreed that we are going to tolerate each other for this week, and then go back to normal when this is all over. I’d rather stab my eyes out with a fork than be friends with you.”

*

"This is my home!" Gavin states loudly, dramatically flinging the door open after he unlocks it.

It’s a lot classier than Michael was expecting it to be. Gavin mentioned at school that he’d been home alone for the past few days, so he’d assumed the place would be trashed. But it’s actually fairly clean. Various colorful paintings are hung up on the wall and beautiful wooden sculptures are randomly places around on shelves and other surfaces. His mother or father must be really into art because this much must have been expensive.

"It’s nice," Michael comments lightly, looking at each piece with interest as they walk around.

"Thank you!"

"Don’t take that as a compliment. I just expected you to live in a zoo or circus."

"Nah," Gavin waves off the insult with a grin, "Geoff’s tried a few times but they always refuse to take me off his hands."

He smirks at the dumb joke, “Where did you say your parents are?”

Gavin’s walking around the house as Michael walks behind him, still carrying the car seat with the currently sleeping baby strapped in. As they walk around Gavin casually gives him a small tour, pointing out which room is which.

"Some kind of wood carving convention. Griffon was so excited about it, and she has Geoff wrapped around her little finger. Needless to say, they had no qualms about leaving me behind to go to it."

"They really like artwork, huh?"

"Yeah, Griffon’s amazing at stuff like that! She ends up with so many pretty carvings that she can’t bear to sell some of them and just lets them drag around the house until she finally decides it’s time to part with it."

"She’s the one that carves all of this stuff?" Michael asks incredulously.

"Yeah, she’s wicked talented!"

He raises his eyebrows, impressed that somebody related to Gavin could actually be this talented. Maybe the talent has just skipped a generation. Not like Michael actually understands art, he just knows beautiful things when he sees them.

"So then what about your dad? What does he do?"

"Plays video games while getting drunk mostly," Gavin grins, "He used to be in the army but now he just runs this really cool video game review website. They’re pretty cool. Griffon is like the badass chainsaw wielding warrior while Geoff is her lazy intoxicated damsel in distress.”

Michael chuckles at the explanation. What an odd way to describe one’s parents, but then again it is Gavin after all. He isn’t sure if he should consider himself lucky or not for their lack of being here. He’d expected Gavin to have this really odd family where they were all just as idiotic as him. But his parents actually sound pretty cool.

"This is my bedroom!" Gavin announces as he opens the door.

It’s what you would expect any stereotypical teenager’s room to look like. Dirty clothes scattered about the floor, bed unmade, numerous objects laying around as though they were carelessly tossed there.

"Compared to the rest of the house, your room is a pig sty," Michael mutters.

"Oh shut it," he scoffs, "It’s my room and I like it."

Michael figures that he doesn’t have much room to patronize because his room back at home isn’t much cleaner than this.

It’s only then that a loud cry pierces the air, and both boys jump in alarm. Little Hamish, still strapped into his car seat, is screaming as loud as his speakers will let him.

Gavin covers his ears with both hands and winces when it begins crying louder due to the lack of attention. “What’s wrong with him!?”

"I don’t know! This is the first time he’s cried so far! I know just as much as you!"

Michael scrambles to safely get the doll out of it’s car seat while Gavin pulls out the folded information sheet from his back pocket. He looks absolutely terrified and Michael would probably laugh at him if he wasn’t in such a rush to shut the stupid thing up. Is he really surprised that the baby is crying? That’s what it’s designed to do!

"Um, have you dumped it in water?" Gavin offers, still looking panicked as his eyes skim through the sheet as fast as they can.

Michael rolls his eyes and tries to yell over the continuous crying, “Just get the stupid bottle and try that!”

Gavin fumbles for a few moments, trying to remember if he left it in the car or not while pulling his book bag off of his back and digging through it. It seems as though his bag is just as messy and unorganized as his bedroom.

"Oh my God, you’re hopeless!" Michael screams at him, "The baby’s going to fucking starve to death before you manage to find it’s stupid bottle!"

"Stop yelling at me!" Gavin cries, almost sounding as whiny as the child itself.

He groans to himself while trying to rock Hamish in his arms to comfort it. Having Gavin as a partner might be just as bad as having to deal with two of these things.

"Just hurry up!"

"I got it!" Gavin beams with accomplishment as he pulls the small white bottle out of his bag. He quickly runs the short distance over to them and places the end next to the baby’s mouth. The screeching and sobbing immediantly stops and is replaced with a soft suckling noise.

Both boys let out a sigh of relief before realizing how close they are to one another. Gavin jumps back when Michael glares at him, which causes the bottle to move from Hamish’s mouth. The violent crying starts again and Gavin’s eyes widen in fear.

"Give me that," Michael practically growls, and snatches the bottle from his hand to hold it himself.

The drinking noise starts again and he lets out a sigh of relief.

"Did you see that?" Gavin offers weakly, "Teamwork."

"Shut the fuck up."


	3. Chapter 3

A few hours pass in peace. Hamish cries a few times but they always are quick to soothe him and stop the noise. It seems almost as though they’re getting the hang of it.

They’re both currently sitting on the couch watching Game of Thrones. The baby is sitting between them on the middle cushion and seems content so far.

"I think we’re doing a pretty top job!"

"It’s only been a couple of hours," Michael points out, "Just wait until night when he’s waking us up."

As soon as the words leave his mouth a person’s head gets completely sliced off on the television show. Gavin gasps and hurries to cover the baby’s eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"As much as I love Game of Thrones, I don’t think it’s appropriate for Hamish’s age group."

"You’re taking this shit way to seriously," he rolls his eyes, "Look, he’s fine. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? He grows up to be a badass warrior that cuts his enemy’s heads off with an axe?"

"You consider that to be a good thing?"

"Yeah, it’d be awesome."

"I don’t want our little angel to grow up to be an axe murderer. I think he should be a doctor, or lawyer."

Michael laughs despite the idiotic conversation, “Don’t be forcing your ideals on him already. He’s not even potty trained yet.”

"You gotta start somewhere." Gavin giggles.

"Okay, I have a question," he states, not able to stand their dirty environment any longer, "How come the rest of the house is basically spotless but the living room is filled with empty pizza boxes and chip bags?"

Gavin looks around, as though he’s only just noticing how dirty it is. It’s almost identical to his room except less laundry is covering the floor.

"Oh, I hadn’t even realized. I’ve been home alone for a few days so I’ve just been ordering pizza and eating junk food this entire time."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, Geoff does all of the cooking so I’ve never really tried before." he lets out a loud gasp."I just had an amazing idea!"

Michael raises a brow, slightly worried at whatever idea could have come out of that idiotic brain, “What?”

"How about you and I cook dinner together! Like a real married couple!"

"You really  _are_ taking this whole family thing too seriously, aren’t you?”

"Come on, Michael," he begs, sticking out his bottom lip so that he looks like a sad child, "It’ll be fun! Hamish can watch and we’ll have a big family dinner!"

"Fine," he gives in, figuring that there’s no harm in it, and he is getting rather hungry, "What can we make?"

"I’m not sure, let’s go check the kitchen!"

He grabs the baby so quickly and jumps up from the couch that fear grows up Michael’s spine. “Don’t be so grabby with him! The dolls have sensitive necks and you’re going to end up breaking it’s little head off.”

"He’s fine! If he’s going to be growing up in the Jones-Free household he needs to toughen up a little bit."

Michael resists the urge to smack him, “Just get to the kitchen.”

After a few minutes of searching through every inch of the fridge and cupboards, they realize that there is hardly any food in this place. Gavin finds some bacon in the freezer but Michael ultimately decides against it. Gavin and hot grease will not mix well.

Luckily they do have cheese, bread, and butter.

"Grilled cheese sandwiches it is!" he announces and turns on the burner.

A few moments of silence pass as they work like little elves. Gavin buttering the bread, and then Michael taking them and putting them into the pan to cook.

"I don’t think I’ve ever made grilled cheese before," Gavin comments lightly.

"Really? It’s like the easiest thing to make."

"How do you know when it’s done?"

"When it’s toasted looking."

"How do you-"

"You flip it over with the spatula," he interrupts, knowing what he’s going to ask and figuring the less Gavin talks the less annoyed he’ll be.

"Well can’t you make it go any faster? I’m feeling a bit peckish."

"I don’t think that’s a real word."

"It is!"

Michael would continue to argue but he hears his phone ringing from the other room. It probably isn’t safe to leave Gavin, a boy who’s never cooked before in his life, alone with cooking food and a electronic baby, but what’s the worst that could really happen?

"Be right back, don’t burn down the kitchen while I’m gone," he orders while leaving.

Gavin rolls his eyes, “I’m not  _that_  stupid.”

"Could’ve fooled me," he mutters under his breath.

It takes him a few moments to find his cell-phone because it’s buried under an empty pizza box on the couch. He curses Gavin’s laziness when it comes to garbage and picks it up.

The name “Lindsay” is printed across the screen in white capital letters. It’s also paired with a silly picture of her grinning at the camera, hugging her cat to the side of her face. He’s thankful that it isn’t Ray because he would just be calling to make jokes.

"Hey, Linds."

"Michael! How are things going with you and Gavin?" her voice sounds hesitant yet hopeful. As though she’s wishing for the best but expects the worst.

He rolls his eyes, “Terrible. He’s a complete idiot. Our kid is going go grow up saying words like  _tip top cheerio!_ ”

She laughs, “It can’t be all that bad. Gavin’s a pretty good guy, you’re just too focused on hating him to actually get along.”

"That isn’t true!" he argues, "As a matter of fact, we made a truce at the beginning of the project. We are going to be as friendly to one another as possible so that this experience is  _somewhat_  tolerable.”

"Oh, yeah?" she doubts, "How’s that been going so far?"

Michael thinks back to the past few hours. His and Gavin’s constant screaming at one another, their refusal to cooperate, and the various bruises decorating their skin. Yeah, maybe that plan went down the drain a lot faster than expected.

"It’s going fine," he insists, "Gavin is still alive, Hamish is still alive, and everything is just fine."

"Hamish?"

"Yeah, that’s what Gavin called the kid. Poor thing."

"I like it. Hamish is a cute name! What’s he doing now?"

"Sleeping, I think."

"I meant Gavin, what’s he doing?"

"He’s in the kitchen. He wants us to bond as a family and cook dinner together." he scoffs and rolls his eyes as he speaks.

It’s like a breath of fresh air to talk to Lindsay. He’s spent the last few hours completely focused on Gavin. It’s nice to have a conversation with somebody that doesn’t make him want to rip his hair out.

"Aww," she coos, almost mockingly, "Well that’s cute! I’m glad you two are getting along!"

He scoffs and leans against the doorframe between the dining and living room. “I’d hardly call it getting along.”

"Well neither of you are dead yet, so that’s a plus in my books."

He decides he’s had enough of gossiping about Gavin. Especially since whenever he says something mean an annoyed ‘ _Oi!_ ' is heard from the kitchen. “So, what about you? You picked Ray as your partner, right?”

She groans at the reminder, “Yeah, and I might as well picked a sack of potatoes. He literally refuses to help with anything. He just sits on his ass all day playing X-Box.”

Michael smirks, already able to imagine the scene of Ray lazily sprawled out on the couch with a controller in his hands while Lindsay yells at him for being an impassive asshole. At least Ray and Lindsay are friends though. They both agreed to a partnership for this project and it wasn’t forced upon them.

Lindsay is sleeping over to Ray’s house during the weekend, which isn’t a big deal for them since they’re used to sleepovers. Sometimes (on the rare occasion when Michael reluctantly agrees to go even though Gavin will be there) the four of them will all hang out at Ray’s house and play video games while getting drunk. Excluding Ray, who doesn’t enjoy drinking. They’ll always end up falling asleep on the floor of his living room and wake up in the morning to the sound of Ray still playing games and searing headaches.

They continue to talk for a few more moments about the dolls, what they’ve had to deal with so far, and how everything is going.

"Whenever I ask him to help with the baby, he refuses. I swear to God I’ve heard the phrase  _yolo_ over eighteen times.” she mutters.

"You’re used to that though. You’ve been friends with Ray for years, he’s always like this. I am not used to dealing with Gavin being a clingy moron."

"You would be used to it if you’d given him a chance back when you first met and didn’t immediately hate him."

"I don’t  _want_ to get used to him. He’s a stupid annoying prick. I just want to get this stupid doll project done and over with.”

"You make him sound like one of the three stooges."

"Because he practically is!"

"You aren’t giving him enough credit. Gavin is pretty smart about some subjects. You just hate him so much that you  _want_ everything he does to be annoying. If you looked at him with an open mind, you wouldn’t be so harsh on him.”

As soon as Lindsay finishes her spiel, Gavin’s screaming can be heard from the kitchen.

“ _Michael_!” he cries in a desperate panic, “Michael! Help!”

It’s only when the sound of the fire alarm mixes in with it, that he drops his phone. Not even bothering to hang up on Lindsay or tell her that something has happened.

When he runs into the kitchen the first thing he sees is the red and orange flames that are growing out of the pan. His eyes widen and he takes note of Gavin panicking, trying to turn off the stove but wussing out and pulling his arm away from the stove whenever the fire gets too close to him. The baby is still sitting in it’s car seat on the counter top, only a few feet away.

"Gavin! You fuck!" Michael yells, running to the sink. He runs entirely on impulse. Remembering all of the fire safety tips his mother would repeat over and over to him as a child in case there was an emergency. He grabs one of the dish towels nearby, turns on the faucet, and soaks it in water.

"I don’t know what happened!" Gavin yells, his voice still incredibly terrified, "It was all fine but then-"

"Just get the fuck away from the fire, you moron!" he demands, stepping forward and throwing the wet towel over the fire.

As soon as everything is under control, turned off, and no longer on fire, Michael turns to Gavin with the most furious glare he can manage.

"I’m sorry!" he cries, fear in his eyes at the sight of Michael’s anger.

"You fucking moron! You could have burned off half your face!"

"It was an accident!"

"How did that even happen!? You were in here the entire time watching it! How stupid are you!?"

"Don’t get mad! It’s all better now! No more fire, see?" he offers, feebly gesturing to the stove.

"Yeah, thanks to me! No wonder you’ve been ordering pizza this entire time. You’re a complete idiot when it comes to cooking!"

Gavin gives him a weak glare, knowing that he’s right but still not willing to be talked down to without a fight. “Well sorry that I’m not bloody perfect like Michael Jones! It was just a little fire! I could have handled it!”

"You were screaming and running around like the world was ending!"

The baby starts crying again and they turn they’re argument away from the cooking fiasco and towards their unhappy infant.

"Well now you’ve upset him!" Gavin argues, no longer flinching at the loud screams coming from the baby’s speaker.

“ _You_  upset him!”

"No I didn-" he lets out a frustrated sigh, "Fine. Whatever. Let’s just stop fighting and fix the stupid thing, okay?"

"Fine!"

They fight for a few moments on who should hold the baby, but ultimately Gavin is the one who wins. “Shhh, it’s okay, love,” he murmurs to the baby as he tries to rock it into silence, “Daddy and Poppa were just having a little disagreement.”

Michael glares at him, “I hate you so fucking much.”

"Michael!" Gavin cries, "Don’t say things like that! You’re going to plant ideas in his head!"

"What the hell does that even mean!? What ideas!?"

It seems they can’t even go two minutes without resorting back to yelling at each other.

"What if he thinks we’re going to get a divorce?"

"We aren’t married, shithead!"

"Just come help me with him!" Gavin demands, "He won’t stop crying!"

"Because you’re holding him wrong!"

"No I’m not-"

Michael doesn’t even bother listening to his argument and instead walks closer so that he can situate the baby properly within Gavin’s arms. This way his neck is supported and there’s very little chance of him falling to the ground, unless Gavin is even more clumsier than originally thought.

"There,  _that’s_  how you hold a baby.” he states in a normal volume. Since the baby has stopped crying it’s probably best to refrain from yelling.

"Oh," Gavin murmurs, looking down at the baby, "So what I was doing  _was_ wrong?”

"Yes. But back to the matter a hand here, how did you manage to set grilled cheese on fire?"

"It was taking too long so I decided to turn up the heat. It ended up being a bad idea."

"I think I’m doing the cooking from now on."

"You can do the cooking and  _I’ll_  do everything else. You know, the important stuff.”

"I am not being your trophy husband," Michael smirks, "And don’t act like cooking isn’t important. It could have been the reason your life ended if I wasn’t here."

Gavin laughs, “The fire wasn’t that big! I could have easily gotten away and survived.”

"Knowing you, you would have tripped on your way out and layed unconscious on the floor as the flames engulfed the house around you."

"You would have saved me."

They’ve hardly even realized the quick shift from screaming angrily at one another to playful conversation. Instead of profanities and cries filling the air, it’s their laughter and stupid jokes.

"No way."

"Yeah!" Gavin insists, "It would be this big romantic and heroic thing where the entire house was on fire and we both couldn’t get out in time. So instead of escaping yourself you just stayed with me in our final moments," he snickers.

"You would have died staring into my eyes."

"That’s how I want it to happen in real life," Gavin grins foolishly. He’s often known to come up with silly hypothetical situations and Michael’s usually annoyed by them, but this time it’s incredibly amusing and it’s also nice to make light of a scary situation instead of fight about it.

They continue on with the ridiculous conversation for a few minutes until the sound of the home phone ringing gets their attention.

"Oh, I’ll get it!"

"You do that and I’m going to start remaking the sandwiches," Michael says as he takes Hamish from Gavin’s arms, "I do not want you  _anywhere_ near the kitchen until the stove is turned off.”

"Party pooper," he states while sticking out his tongue. If Michael’s arms weren’t filled with electronic baby he’d give him the middle finger.

When Gavin picks up the phone in the living room he’s almost expecting it to be Geoff or Griffon checking in on him, but has to hold the phone away from his ear when he hears Lindsay’s frantic voice.

"Gavin!? Michael!? Is everything okay!?"

"Lindsay?" he questions, "What’s wrong?"

"What wrong!? You’re asking  _me_  that? I was just on the phone with Michael and suddenly I hear screaming and loud noises and then he hangs up on me. I’ve tried calling both of your cell phones but nobody would pick up!” she explains.

"Oh, yeah, I almost set the house on fire."

She stops panicking and begins laughing, which annoys him simply because hearing about one of your friends accidentally starting a fire should not be something one laughs at.

"I could have died, Lindsay!"

"But Michael ran in to save you," she points out and he can almost picture the grin on her face, "Like a knight in shining armor."

"More like an angry little troll that was upset that I’ve crossed his bridge without permission."

"You and I are reading completely different fairy tales, Gavin Free."

"It’s Gavin Jones now, Lindsay," he smiles, "Keep up with the program."

"Ray and I have decided on marriage-less child raising experience." she informs him, "But it’s not like he’s helping in anyway, I’m stuck doing all of the work."

"Where’s the baby now?"

"With Ray."

"I thought he wasn’t helping?" Gavin raises an eyebrow, not expecting Lindsay to lie about Ray’s participation. The two are actually really good friends and often playfully argue a lot due to their opposite personalities.

"He isn’t! The baby will start crying and he’ll just call out to me to take care of it! He doesn’t even pause his game!" she cries in annoyance, and Gavin’s willing to bet that she’s glaring at Ray right now.

"What if Michael and I come over one day to help you out a bit," he offers after he stops laughing, "You sound a little stressed."

"A little? It’s not even been one full day and I’m already fighting the urge to rip my hair out."

"You and Ray just aren’t as compatible when it comes to baby raising like Michael and I are."

"Funny you should say that, because he just said the complete opposite to me while you were busy turning your house into the Hartford Circus."

"Well he was lying because we happen to be great partners." he states and then shrugs with amusement, "As long as you look past all of the arguing, swearing, screaming, and death threats."

"I would take that over a lazy ass baby daddy who refuses to help with his own child."

"You two should go on Maury Povich."

Lindsay doesn’t even hear the comment because their baby begins crying. Gavin can faintly hear Ray yelling out “Lindsay! The kid needs you!” before hearing her groans of annoyance.

"Save me." she mutters.

"Later. Maybe on the last day of the project, when you’ve reached your breaking point."

"I’ve reached it three hours ago."

"Have a nice night, Linds," he grins, "Go take care of the baby… and, ya’know, the doll too."

"Shut up." she mutters before hanging up.

He’s been hearing those words a lot lately.


	4. Chapter 4

"Where can I sleep?" Michael asks when midnight rolls around.

They figure that it’ll be best to sleep now while the baby isn’t making any fuss. Who knows how much it will cry throughout the night so they’re better off getting as much rest as they can. Besides, they have school tomorrow.

"There’s a spare room downstairs," Gavin responds from the bathroom where he’s currently brushing his teeth, "Do you want to take Hamish or shall I?"

"I don’t know, are we going to takes turns having him in our rooms?"

"Yeah, if you want," he shrugs, "It would certainly make things easier."

Michael’s sitting on Gavin’s bed, trying to rock the baby to sleep even though it’s persistent to stay awake. If he falls asleep then that means he might be out for a few hours.

"But if he starts crying both of us will have to get up anyways. Won’t it make things difficult?"

"Then what do you suggest?" he walks into the room, wearing nothing more than a simple t-shirt and pajama pants, "You can sleep in my room if you want."

"Where?"

"The bed? The floor? I don’t know, Michael. You aren’t giving me many options. I can’t come up with everything."

"If I’m sleeping in here, then you’re sleeping on the floor and I get the bed."

"Well that’s not fair! This is  _my_  room!” As if to prove his point he stomps over and sits down on the bed in front of him, as though claiming the territory as his.

Michael raises and eyebrow and with his free hand, the one that isn’t cradling the baby, shoves him off of the bed so he topples to the floor ungracefully.

"That wasn’t very nice, Michael." he mutters as he untangles himself. He landed as a pile of twisted limbs onto his head. Not a pleasant way to end the day.

*

Instead of peaceful sleep, the night is filled with the baby’s cries.

It’s just a constant stream of screams and crying coming from the tiny doll and the two of them scramble around to soothe it all while yelling at one another.

"It doesn’t want the fucking bottle, Gavin!" Michael yells at him as he tries to hold it to the dolls mouth.

"It didn’t want it’s diaper changed! I don’t know what else it could want!"

"The damn kid is possessed! We could buy it a trip to Disney World and it would still sob it’s ass off."

"Don’t curse around him! The information sheet says that he can hear loud noises and it’ll make him cry! You screaming at the top of your lungs isn’t going to solve anything!" Gavin yells back, but only because if he spoke in a normal tone Michael wouldn’t be able to hear him.

"Well then what do you suggest we do!?"

"Uh," Gavin scans through the sheet, "Are you rocking him?"

Michael rolls his eyes, “Yes.”

"Have you tried singing him to sleep?"

"I am not singing to a doll."

Gavin sighs with exasperation, “Do you  _want_ him to cry for the remainder of the night? He turns off at seven o’clock so we can get ready for school, it’s five now!”

"Why don’t  _you_  sing to it then!?”

He glares at him but comes to sit down next to him anyways. They’re both sitting on the floor with their legs crossed and Michael has the baby bundled up in his arms, trying to rock him back into sleep or at least stop it from crying. It hasn’t worked so far.

"Only if you’ll help."

"Fine." he settles for the compromise. At this point he’s actually willing to do anything to stop this kid from crying as long as it won’t affect their grade.

"Um," Gavin wracks his brain for possible lullabies and Michael about to shout at him to hurry up until he finally starts singing in the softest voice he can manage.

“ _You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,_

_You keep me happy, when skies are grey,_

_You’ll never know dear, how much I love you,_

_So please don’t take my sunshine away_ ,”

When he finishes the short song the baby is still crying, but not as loudly as before. It’s settled down a little and only starts screaming again when Gavin stops.

"That song is too short."

"Then we can just sing it again and again until he stops."

Michael rolls his eyes but joins in anyways when Gavin starts singing again.

The next half an hour is spent with them quietly repeating the song over and over again as the baby’s cries eventually simmer down. They only stop when the soft breathing noise replaces the sobbing and indicates that Hamish has fallen asleep.

They both let out sighs of relief.

"Finally," Gavin whispers.

"I can’t believe that worked," Michael whispers back, "That was the most stupid thing I’ve ever done."

"What? Sing your baby to sleep? How is that stupid?"

"It’s not a baby, it’s a dumb school project."

Gavin scrunches up his nose, “You’re lucky he’s asleep right now or you might end up hurting his feelings.”

"He’s a doll, stupid. He has no feelings."

"Here," Gavin takes the doll from his arms carefully and rests it into the car seat. "Our little angel has tired himself out."

"I wouldn’t exactly call him an angel."

Gavin chooses to ignore him and instead gets up off the floor, “Let’s go to bed. We can at least get an hour and a half in before we have to get up for school.”

"Yipiee," Michael whispers back sarcastically.

*

The only class that Michael and Gavin have together is Life Science, and they don’t have it again until it’s time to pass in the baby. So the school day continues on like normal, neither of them really seeing one another until lunchtime.

Gavin’s the first one to the table and sends a quick text to Michael.

_Gavin: You coming to Lunch?_

It’s only a few moments until he responds.

_Michael: Obviously. But I might be late. Mrs.Grover is kicking my ass for falling asleep during class. Are Lindsay and Ray there yet?_

The two are in the same math class, which they happened to have before lunch today. So it’s no surprise when they come together, already holding their individual lunch trays.

_Gavin: Yup, just walked in._

"Hey, Gavvy!" Lindsay greets him as they both sit down. She has a wide and pleasant smile on her face but her eyes look dead tired.

"Jesus, Lindsay, are you okay?" he questions.

"Yeah, the baby cried all night. I had to take care of it on my own because Ray is an asshole."

"I resent that!" he exclaims, shoveling fries into his mouth.

"So, I see that parenthood is still not sitting well with you two?"

"Hey, I’m a great dad. That kid knows how to get every single achievement in the newest Call of Duty game."

"You really consider that to be good parenting?" Lindsay questions, fighting the urge to smack him upside the head.

"It’s an important life skill."

She rolls her eyes and turns her attention towards the empty seat beside her, “Where’s Michael?”

"Says he’s coming in a few minutes."

"Are you actually managing well with him throughout this project?"

"What are you," he scoffs, "A reporter?"

She raises an eyebrow at his sarcasm, “Gavin.”

"I’m doing fine, okay? I’m just so used to him constantly hating me that it’s kind of nice to actually be getting along well with him. We’re joking around and laughing with one another a lot. It’s not all glares and hateful comments."

She sighs, “Just don’t get too used to it.”

Lindsay and Ray both know about his  _little_  crush on Michael. He’s always sort of liked him. Just this little feeling in the back of his head that always pestered him until he finally went to bother him in some way.

Michael hated Gavin right from the moment that they’ve met. There was never a reason, never a clear explanation, Michael just hated him. And that was that. It kind of tore Gavin’s heart a little because he…sort of kind of liked him when they first met. Maybe it worked out in his favor because he loved to annoy Michael. He could easily get that response just by simply making a silly face at him or being a smug asshole around him.

Michael was just easy to piss off, and it amused Gavin to no end. It was easy to push his silly crush to the back of his mind and focus more on annoying Michael. It seemed obvious that nothing would ever happen between the two since one spent all of their time actually hating the other. They weren’t even friends.

"You two will be banging by the end of the week." Ray mutters.

"Shut up, Ray."

"You know I’m right!" he argues, "Twenty bucks says you’ll be in his pants before this project ends."

"We all know Michael hates me, there’s no way you’d be winning that bet."

He shrugs, “He hated you more yesterday and now you two are actually getting along, right?”

"I don’t think you could classify it as  _getting along_ -“

"You’ve made that much progress in only one day." he points out, not even listening to Gavin’s words, "I think it’s only a matter of time before you two are banging. In fact, I think the only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because Michael is a stubborn asshole that knows that he likes you but just refuses to give in to it. Thus, ignoring you and pretending that he hates you."

"I’ve never heard you speak so many words before," Gavin mutters, not wanting to look into Ray’s explanation because if he does he might start getting hopeful. He’s known Michael long enough now to know that the guy actually does hate him. More than one would expect from such a cute freckled faced teenager.

"You can ignore it all you want," Lindsay agrees, "But you know that he speaks the truth."

"Besides, all of your pent up sexual tension is suffocating me. Just listening to you two fight is enough to kill a guy."

Gavin rolls his eyes and instead focuses on his lazy tone, “Why do  _you_  sound so tired?”

"Raising a baby is hard work."

Lindsay makes a ‘I’m going to strangle you’ motion and for a moment Gavin fears that he’s actually going to have to hold her back.

"Hello friends and Gavin Free!" Michael calls out joyously as he slams down his lunch tray besides Lindsay.

"Hey, Michael, where were you?" Lindsay asks while stealing one of his french fries despite the amount she still has on her own tray.

"Getting yelled at by a teacher for being a lazy asshole in class," he shrugs, "What else is new?"

"Gav was just telling us about your adventures in parenting. Care to give us your perspective?" she questions, hoping that he’ll say positive things in order to prove both her and Ray’s points. But then again, this is Michael Jones after all.

"Gavin’s an incompetent moron and he’s lucky that we aren’t taking care of a real baby or I would be really worried." he mutters, shooting him a glare from across the table.

Gavin isn’t offended and instead laughs, “I’ve been doing a pretty top job if I do say so myself!”

"You nearly set the house on fire!"

"It was just a minor kitchen flame. No big deal."

Michael rolls his eyes but grins at the memory. “You are a safety hazard to yourself.”

Lindsay and Ray exchange knowing glances as they listen to the two boys talk and make stupid jokes for the rest of lunch.


	5. Chapter 5

"It’s the weekend!" Gavin cries as they enter his house. He carelessly throws his book-bag to the wall and Michael fears that one of the paintings is going to fall to the ground.

"Be careful with that thing," he scolds and closes the door behind them.

"No more school until Monday!"

"Yeah, but we’ve still got to take care of Hamish all weekend."

"But taking care of Hamish is fun!"

Michael raises a brow, “You really think that?”

"Yeah, hasn’t it been fun so far?"

He hates to admit it, but it kind of has been. Michael didn’t think that spending time with Gavin could ever be fun, but it’s only been one day and he’d actually been enjoying himself. Despite the minor fire, constant bickering, and general stupidity from his partner.

He doesn’t bother to respond and instead turns on the television once they reach the living room. Hamish is still there sitting in his car seat and he hasn’t turned on yet.

"What are we watching?" Gavin asks as he sits down next to him on the couch.

"I don’t know, trying to find something interesting."

"That’ll take a while unless you’re up for shitty Disney channel movies. That’s all they ever play after school nowadays."

He flips through numerous channels until finally just turning the television off completely, “Why don’t we eat something first. Then we don’t have to faff about with food when Hamish turns on.”

"How much longer until that happens?"

Gavin pulls his phone out of his pocket and presses the home button, “Like ten minutes.”

"Perfect." he grumbles sarcastically as he gets up off the couch, "There’s nothing even in this house to cook. Unless you want grilled cheese again?"

"No way, I ate enough grilled cheese yesterday to last me a life time."

Michael smirks, “My cooking is just so badass that you couldn’t stop yourself, can’t blame you.”

"How about we go to the store and grab some groceries? Geoff and Griffon left me money for that but so far I’ve only been using it for pizza delivery."

"Why didn’t you just go to the store yourself?"

"Because that requires effort, Michael."

He rolls his eyes and shoves Gavin so that he lands back on the couch again, in the most ungraceful way possible.

*

A few minutes later they find themselves in Michael’s car again, both in the front seats while Hamish is buckled into his car seat in the back.

"Why don’t we just say screw it to the groceries and just buy a pizza from that new shop that just opened down town?"

"What is it with you and pizza?"

Gavin doesn’t get to respond because the high pitched gurgling noise alerts them that the baby has turned on again. Not even a beat passes before it’s crying fills the empty air and both boys groan at the familiar sound of it’s unhappiness.

"The baby has literally  _just_  turned on and it’s  _already_  crying!?” Michael yells, annoyed that he’s going to have to pull over so that they can handle it.

"I’ve got him!" Gavin cries as he unbuckles his seatbelt and begins climbing to the backseat.

"Gavin! We’re gonna get in a wreck!"

"No we’re not!" he argues, half of his body in the front of the car and the other half in the back. He grabs the bottle from the baby bag quickly and holds it to the baby’s mouth. "There, there, Hamish," he coos, "Drink your milk so you can be big and strong one day!"

"Gavin, if you don’t get your ass back into the front seat I will kick you out of this car and run you over with it!"

"But Hamish is hungry!"

"Then get in the back seat! Put on a damn seatbelt before we get pulled over!"

"He’s almost finished! Don’t be so impatient!"

"No he’s not! That stupid thing eats for half an hour sometimes!"

"Stop yelling!" Gavin yells back, contradicting his own statement.

Michael doesn’t bother arguing and instead reaches up his arm to shove Gavin forward using his elbow. The squeak of protest accompanied by the sound of him toppling half onto the floor and backseat is all the satisfaction Michael needs.

"You’ve really got to stop doing that!" he protests.

Michael just laughs.

*

"Do we really have to use one of  _these_  carts?” Michael complains as Gavin straps Hamish into it. They’re using one of those carts with the child’s seat built into it for parental convince. But right now it’s only serving Michael embarrassment and annoyance. “You couldn’t have just carried the thing or stayed with it in the car?”

"No, we have to give him the full experience! His first trip to the grocery store! We should take a picture to celebrate the occasion," Gavin grins at him when he finally finishes securing the child.

"Yeah, I’ll prepare a page in the Jones-Free family scrapbook." he mutters sarcastically.

"Now you’re getting into the spirit." Gavin says as he begins climbing into the cart.

"No, no, no," Michael states, "You are  _not_ getting in the cart.”

"But we aren’t going to be getting that many groceries, there’s plenty of room for me to sit down in it."

"You aren’t a five year old boy, Gavin. You can walk."

"But sitting in the cart is more fun," he pouts.

"No."

"…Please?" he begs, trying to resist the urge to smile as he pretends that he’s about to start crying.

"Oh my gosh, just get in the fucking cart, you big baby," he groans but as soon as Gavin looks away from him to climb in, he grins to himself. How did he get stuck with such a loser of a partner?

"This is going to be fun, Michael! You’ve got your whole family in one tiny shopping cart!"

They wander through aisles, picking out little things for food. Gavin spends the entire time reaching out of the cart and pulling junk food from the shelves. Whenever Michael protests he pulls the “ _It’s_ my _money we’re spending_!” card.

"Yeah, but we’re here to get stuff for  _dinner_. We can’t have chips and candy as a meal, you moron.”

"What about pizza?"

"We are not getting you anymore pizza. Fucking let it go."

He’s seriously so close to throwing Gavin to the floor and hurting him. He doesn’t matter how, he just needs to feel the satisfaction of hearing him cry out in pain in  _some_ way or another.

"I’ve just spent so many days living off of pizza," he explains, "It’s like I don’t know any other way of life. I’m like that guy in Shawshank Redemption who finally got released from jail and didn’t know how to handle life outside."

Michael raises an eyebrow, “You’re seriously comparing your eating pizza for a few days straight to a man living over forty years of his life in prison?”

"More or less," he shrugs nonchalantly, "Eating pizza is probably more enjoyable than prison."

Michael rolls his eyes, “ _Probably_.”

"Can I pick what we eat tonight?" Gavin asks

"As long as it’s actually something a normal person would eat for dinner, then yes." Michael says, not wanting Gavin to beg that ice-cream would be a good meal, "And it can’t be complicated. Just because I’m the only one out of the two of us who can cook, does not mean I can  _actually_  cook.”

"Those grilled cheeses were top."

"Oh yeah, I’m the master of grilled cheese. Gordan Ramsey would be so proud," he mutters.

"Can we have mac and cheese?" Gavin asks while already grabbing boxes and putting them in the cart with him.

"Yeah, sure," he figures that it’s the closest thing Gavin will get to an actual meal. If he said no to that than who knows what he’d try to suggest next. He just wants to get out of here before Hamish starts crying and the entire store thinks that they’re insane for taking a doll so seriously.

He briefly wonders how his life has progressed to the point where he is in the middle of a grocery store, pushing around a cart that is filled with candy, snack food, nine boxes of macaroni and cheese, a boy that he’s being forced to play house with, and a electronic school project that cries and shits itself on a daily basis. Amazing.

"Jack! Caiti!" Gavin’s yelling pulls him out of his thoughts and he sees the boy frantically waving his hands as he tries to stand in the cart.

"Sit the hell down," Michael scolds, feeling like a mother with an out of control toddler.

Of course everybody in the store looks over at them due to Gavin’s volume and it causes him to look away in embarrassment. How does anybody handle actually living with Gavin everyday? It’s only been a day and a half and he’s already frustrated beyond belief.

"Look! It’s me! Gavin! Here in the shopping cart!" he cries out, even though the two people have already seen him.

The couple walks over with amused looks on their faces. The woman has long beautiful brown hair and the man has a large, scruffy orange beard, but that’s really the only two traits about their appearance that really sticks out to him.

"What the hell are you doing, Gavin?" the man asks.

"I’m shopping with Michael, we’re buying groceries so he can make us dinner tonight."

"You aren’t going to help him?" the girl asks, and he takes note of her Australian accent.

"No, he tried last night and almost burned the house down," Michael comments.

"Jack and Caiti, this is Michael," Gavin introduces, "Michael, this is Jack and Caiti."

They both greet him happily and he wonders how such nice and sweet people could be associated with Gavin in anyway.

"Geoff’s not going to be happy when he learns that you started a fire in the house," Jack points out.

"It was an accident! We were trying to make grilled cheese…"

"And how did you manage to fuck that up?"

"You’re better off not asking, hearing about his stupidity might be damaging to your own brain cells." Michael answers for him.

"Michael!" Gavin protests.

"Okay, my turn for questions!" Caiti pipes up, "Why do you have a baby and who owns it?"

"Oh, it’s not a real baby," Gavin explains, "It’s for one of those projects for school. We have to take care of it when it cries and change it’s diaper and things like that. Michael and I are husbands."

"Class partners." he corrects, but nobody pays him any attention.

"I thought you were just supposed to take care of an egg or a sack of flour? When did high school projects get so advanced?" Caiti asks as she walks next to Michael so she can take a peek at the doll.

"Hamish is better than eggs and flour." Gavin grins.

"You named it Hamish?"

"Yes, and he’s perfect in every way."

Jack turns to Michael with a raised eyebrow, “How difficult has it been having to deal with him?”

"Dude, you don’t even wanna fucking know."

He doesn’t frown at his language and only smirks as though he understands his pain.

"This still doesn’t explain why you’re sitting in the cart." Caiti says to Gavin with confusion.

"Simple explanation," Michael grins, "Gavin is a moron."

"Ah," she nods in total understanding.

Gavin frowns at her, “And here I was about to buy you guys a wedding gift.”

"You didn’t even go to the wedding itself," Jack points out.

"Because Geoff wouldn’t let me! He was scared that I’d ruin it or something."

"I swear Geoff gets smarter every year that he takes care of your stupid ass." Jack mutters.

"You don’t have to get a gift, Gavin," Caiti smiles warmly.

"Didn’t Geoff and Griffon get you a gift? I’m technically their son, so my name should be tagged onto that as well."

"Do you even know what they got us?" Jack quizzes, knowing that Gavin doesn’t know the answer.

"Uh, money, I think?"

"How much?"

"I don’t know. Twenty quid?" he guesses with a playful grin on his face.

"Definitely more than twenty quid for a wedding," Jack laughs, not even bothering to point out that they didn’t even get them money.

"Well, I’m an independent lad. I’m going to get you a gift that’s just from me."

"Oh really?" he mocks.

"Yeah," Gavin nods, "You want, like, twenty quid or something?"

Jack rolls his eyes while Michael and Caiti laugh. They all continue to casually talk until they decide to part ways.

"Try not to let Gavin burn the house down," Jack says to Michael, "I mean, I know it’s almost impossible to control his dumbassery but at least  _try_?”

"I’ll do my best," he responds, deciding that he likes these two and that Gavin’s lucky to have such cool adults in his life. He hasn’t even met Gavin’s parents but they already seem pretty awesome and then also being close friends with these people? They must have the most kickass Christmas parties ever.

"Have fun with your school project, Gavvy." Caiti grins at him and gives him a motherly little kiss on the top of the head, "Try not to annoy your boyfriend too much."

Michael’s about to protest that last sentence but the two are already walking away, “It was nice meeting you, Michael!” Jack calls out.

"You too!" he responds, figuring that correcting the misunderstanding isn’t worth the bother.

"Now," Gavin turns to him with excitement, "Let’s go home and cook up some cheesy goodness!"

"You are to much too handle." Michael says but smiles anyways as he begins to push their cart toward the checkout.

*

The day passes peacefully. Hamish doesn’t cry all that much and even when he does he’s dealt with quickly. They both work on their individual homework after they eat and then spend the rest of the day playing video games.

Michael decides that it’s actually nice to just casually hang out with Gavin. No arguments or insults unless they’re involved in their playful banter. Just stupid jokes, obnoxious laughter, and comfortable silences.

It’s only when they’re getting ready for bed that Michael brings up the couple they met again.

"So who were those two at the grocery store today?" he questions while Gavin walks into the room, his hair still wet from the shower he just took.

He’s only wearing a pair of plaid pajama pants and digs through his closet for a t-shirt. When he finally finds one he pulls it over his head, then raises an eyebrow, “Who? Jack and Caiti?”

"Yeah."

"They’re family friends. They actually just recently got married and are going on their honeymoon soon. They usually come over and we’ll all play video games together."

"Sounds fun," he comments, but steers the conversation back into the direction he intended, "So what did Caiti say about me at the end?"

"What do you mean?" Gavin’s cheeks turn red slightly and it’s obvious that he knows exactly what Michael’s talking about.

"She called me your boyfriend?"

Gavin tries to shrug the topic off, “Yeah, I guess she just assumed.”

He fears for a moment that Michael is going to get angry that he didn’t do more to correct the misunderstanding. But relief washes over him when he sees the other boy smirk with amusement.

"Could you imagine you and I dating? That would be hell. I can hardly survive two days with you."

"Yeah," Gavin grins. He bounces over to the bed and hops onto it so that he’s sitting close to him, "Except we’re not dating. We’re  _married_.”

"Get the hell away from me," Michael chuckles and shoves him away. But Gavin makes it a point to lean in closer just enough to invade his personal space. Before Michael can move away, he wraps his arms around his neck in an awkward playful hug, obviously just to annoy him.

"We’re husbands. I can snuggle in close to you as much as I want." he rubs his face against his shoulder obnoxiously, trying to be as invasive as possible.

"Is it your life mission to be as annoying as possible? Because I have no qualms over punching you in the face right now."

"Fine, fine," he rolls his eyes and unravels himself from the other boy, still smiling when he sits back down across from him.

Michael only stops smiling back when he realizes how much he didn’t really mind Gavin being that close to him. His eyebrows come together in confusion when he’s hit with the overwhelming urge to grab his arms and put them back around him.

He wants to fight away those thoughts because it means that Ray was right. That he’s actually liked Gavin this entire time but just refused to admit it to himself. He can’t even count how many times they’ve had that conversation over a game of Call of Duty or GTA and it would end with Michael nearly snapping his controller in two with frustration. Always proclaiming that he  _hates_ Gavin and that he will  _always_  hate Gavin. Then getting even more pissed off when Ray would just smirk and say, ‘ _Whatever you say, man_.’

If that-Michael could see this-Michael now he’d be throwing a fit.

Gavin raises an eyebrow at the serious expression, “Michael?”

"Just…" he murmurs quietly, not breaking eye contact, "Just shut up for a second."

For once in his life Gavin actually obeys and doesn’t speak a word, not even when he leans in closer to him, erasing the empty space between their faces. So close that he can actually feel Gavin’s hot breath against his cheek. He studies his face as he leans in, never actually realizing until this moment how attractive Gavin really is.

Michael just wanted to see why he was reacting to him in such a way, he didn’t expect his heart to beat faster and for his palms to start sweating as they get closer to one another. His hands twitch and it’s like they’re desperate to hold his head and pull him closer.

His head is screaming at him to stop and move away, to roll his eyes and call the boy a moron. But his entire body is telling him to let things proceed. He doesn’t know which one to listen to but feeling Gavin’s hot breath against his face is all of the

Gavin’s eyelids flutter shut, and he feels the most faintest brush of lips against his. And he’s only given a second to process the beautiful tingling feeling it sends through his brain before a loud shrilling cry fills the air.

They jump back from one another in fright at the noise, and their cheeks immediately turn red once they look in each others eyes. Both swimming with hesitance, guilt, and nerves. Both of their hearts are pounding, but neither know if its because of the intimate moment or the small scare.

They don’t say anything for a few moments, just their nervous tension and the sound of the baby begging for attention surrounds them.

"I, uh… I’ll go get him." Gavin manages to get out and Michael nods his head quickly in return.

"Yeah, o-okay."

He gets off of the bed and bends down to where the baby is laying, whispering hushed words as though the doll can actually register them. It continues to cry on but Michael doesn’t pay any attention to that. He’s too busy trying to sort out the feeling of his brain exploding on itself.

He and Gavin almost kissed. Well, correction, they  _did_  kiss. Just very briefly. But it was still a kiss nonetheless, and Michael’s heart won’t stop beating quickly at the thought of it. His palms won’t stop sweating. And his stomach won’t stop dropping every time he remembers the faint feel of Gavin’s lips against his.

It’s only when he hears the sound of Hamish’s cries quieting that he actually snaps out of this trance. He looks over to see Gavin slowly rocking the doll, murmuring one of those dumb lullabies to it. The baby accepts it though, and soon it’s tiny cries are replaced with soft snoring sounds.

And it’s only when Gavin looks up at him with a sheepishly proud smile, his cheeks still faintly red as he tries to ignore the slight awkwardness to the air, that he realizes how fucked he really is.


	6. Chapter 6

The baby doesn’t cry very much during the night and is very easily dealt with whenever he does. The next day neither bring up what happened last night and seem content to pretend that it never existed in conversations.

But just because they don’t talk about it doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking about it.

Michael figures that all teenagers probably go through something like this. Aren’t teenagers stereotypically known for wanting to make out with anything even remotely attractive? He has to admit that Gavin does fit that bill rather well.

He’s still as stubborn as ever though, and he will never admit in a million years that maybe Ray is kind of right. Maybe he  _does_ sort of like Gavin a little bit. But just as a friend. Nothing more. He will gladly punch anyone in the face who says otherwise.

It’s weird to be living in somebody else’s house and be so comfortable with them. Only a few days ago he hated Gavin’s guts and refused to be anywhere near him. Now they’re literally sitting on the couch watching an old episode of _Doctor Who_  that Gavin begged him to put on.

It’s almost as though they actually are an old married couple, having a lazy relaxing day just watching television with their sleeping baby.

Gavin’s sprawled out across the couch, his head leaning on the arm rest, his legs in Michael’s lap, and Hamish laying on his stomach. Michael can’t even remember when they moved to be in this position, but it’s still comfortable regardless.

"So he’s not a real doctor?"

Gavin rolls his eyes, “No.”

"Then why do they all call him Doctor?"

"Because that’s just his name."

"Is his last name Who?"

He snickers, his eyes not leaving the screen despite the fact that he’s seen this episode before, “No.”

"Is that blue thing his house?"

"Kind of? It’s a TARDIS."

"What the hell is that?"

"It’s like a time machine, I suppose. It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

Michael doesn’t even try to pretend that he understands, “So who’s that blonde girl?”

"That’s Rose Tyler," Gavin nods with satisfaction as he continues to watch David Tennant and Billie Piper run around on the screen, "The doctor fancies here, I think."

"You sound very unsure about everything in this show."

"Yeah, Doctor Who is complicated. Every fan has their own interpretation of it, I suppose. Brandon Farmahini in your math class and Mr. Burns girlfriend, Ashley, watches it too, and we always get in arguments over which doctor is the best."

"You know Mr. Burns’ girlfriend?"

"Yeah," Gavin nods and gives him a confused look, "I thought you knew that. Both of them are really close friends with Geoff and Griffon. They come over all of the time too for video games and parties."

It only serves to prove Michael’s point further that Gavin knows some of the coolest adults ever. He decides to drop the subject regardless and turns back to the television show, “How many doctors are there?”

"Eleven currently. Soon twelve though."

Michael makes a face when the doctor pulls out some kind of pen looking thing that glows at the tip, “This show is dumb.”

"Don’t make me choose between you and Doctor Who, Michael! I don’t want British television to be the root of our divorce."

Michael grins but continues to watch the show anyway, even though he doesn’t really have any idea what’s happening in it.

"I don’t think Hamish should watch this kind of stuff," he points out, basically just because he wants to bicker.

"You think  _Game of Thrones_  is suitable television for him but not  _Doctor Who_!?” Gavin questions with wide eyes, resisting the urge to sit up because that might disturb the baby.

"I just don’t want him to have a dumb British accent when he grows up. Watching shows like this is only going to encourage him."

"British accents are great!" Gavin argues, but he’s also laughing, "But I am rather fond of your American accent. Plus you’ve still got that twang of Jersey in there."

"Do I?" he asks.

He remembers how thick his accent used to be when he’d first moved here as a kid, and only started trying to lose it when he’d heard his voice on a recording once. He tried to pronounce his words better and he thought he’d lost it altogether at this point. He was rather young at the time and has lived the majority of his life here in Austin after all.

"Yeah, but I like it. I want Hamish to talk like you when he grows up."

"As long as he doesn’t inherit your stupid made up British words then I’m all for it."

"Perfect. Now that’s one less thing that I have to teach him." Gavin smiles with satisfaction as he turns back to the television.

"Asshole, you’re just trying to get out of baby raising duties."

"I would like to relinquish as much responsibility as possible."

"You lazy fuck."

Gavin doesn’t bother arguing because he knows he’s right, “What time is it?”

"Uh, around seven I think. We’ve literally sat here on this couch watching TV for over four hours." Michael responds. Hamish cried a lot during it and he’d always try to blame it on the dumb shows Gavin would make them watch. He’s finally settled down now and has been sleeping for the past ten minutes.

"Wanna have some bevs?" Gavin questions.

"What the hell is a bev?"

"Like beer!" he explains with enthusiasm, but Michael still doesn’t understand why he didn’t just say that in the first place, "I know where Geoff and Griffon keep it. We can get hammered and play Minecraft."

"Really?" Michael raises a brow, "I figured you’d continue with this streak of trying to be a model parent. Is it really a good parenting to get drunk while taking care of an infant?"

"Hamish can handle himself. Besides, he’s sleeping and I’m bored."

He sighs and thinks it’s through. It’s been a while since he’s had any kind of alcoholic beverage. Besides, the project is half over and he’s somehow managed to survive it this long. He deserves some kind of reward for that, so what’s the harm in it? Gavin’s also giving him the most desperate puppy eyes he’s ever seen, and he has to put a stop to it because if he keeps going Michael might actually start thinking that it’s cute.

"Fine."

*

A few hours later, they find themselves incredibly drunk while playing Minecraft on the couch. Hamish is sleeping in the bedroom in his car seat but the door is open so they can easily hear if he starts crying.

Usually Michael is annoyed by how chatty Gavin is in general, and he’s even worse while drunk. But the tolerance he’s been building up for the guy makes it easier for him to talk back and hold these ridiculous conversations with him.

"So, okay, this is an interview of you, Michael," he states.

"Yeah."

"Being- Like, obviously I’m from, uh, Great England of Britain."

"Obviously," Michael smirks.

"Um, what have you learned from me since you’ve known me?"

As much as he hates to admit it, Gavin’s stupid words have grown on him over the years that they’ve known each other. Whenever he’s practically forced to associate with Gavin due to their mutual friends, he’s always screaming or arguing with him for his fake words. But he’s actually caught himself saying them on more than one occasion.

"Uh, I’ve learned lots of, like, fancy words."

"Like, what are some of the words what you have learned?" Gavin stumbles over his own sentence but Michael still seems to understand what he’s attempting to ask.

"I’ve learned nob. I’ve never said nob before you got here."

"Yeah, except, uh, what is on a door?"

"Well that’s also a knob."

"Knob. So you already knew the word knob."

"Yeah, but not for penis."

"That’s irrelevant though, you already knew the word." Gavin argues, his voice slurring as he tries to focus on both the game and their discussion at the same time.

"I think you’re getting a bit upset."

"What else have you learned from me?"

"Um," he racks his brain for a good example, "Sometimes when you’re hungry you’re like ‘ _I’m getting minged off, I’m really hungry. I’m feeling a bit peckish._ ’”

"Peckish!?"

"Yeah."

"I don’t think I’ve ever said peckish."

"That’s a word you use though."

"It’s a word British people use but I’ve never brought peckish to America."

"You’re peckish all the time!"

"I will admit I brought a lot of words over to the grand old America of the USA but peckish?"

"Yeah?"

"Not one of them."

"Sorry that I haven’t memorized every single one of your made up words."

"They aren’t made up! They’re real words back in England!"  
  
"Well you’re in America now! You’ve got to start talking like us!"  
  
"You’re just trying to silence me!"  
  
"Damn right I’m trying to silence you. You’re an annoying prick that never shuts the fuck up."

Gavin begins laughing and Michael’s about to ask what’s so funny until he sees that he’s dumped lava inside of his house.

"Gavin, you fuck!" he screams angrily, "You fucking cocksucker!"

He just continues to laugh so hard that tears begin to pour out of his eyes. “Your beautiful house, Michael. What happened to it?”

"You fucking happened to it!"

"Just come live in my house. I’ve already got rooms for you and Hamish, we can live together like the happy family we are."

"I hate you so much," he states even though he makes his character walk into Gavin’s house. There’s a wooden sign above a door that reads " _Micoo’s room_ " and he rolls his eyes before going in and placing all of his items in a chest.

"This is fun, ain’t it?" Gavin muses peacefully, no longer wreaking havoc on their Minecraft world, which he loving named " _Michael & Gav Happy World_,” much to Michael’s annoyance.

"I suppose."

"Michael?" Gavin questions, turning away from the screen completely even though his character is being chased by numerous enemies.

He figures the worst he’ll get is some stupid ‘Would You Rather’ type question. This isn’t his first time witnessing it, but drunk Gavin is pretty predictable.

"Yeah?"

"You are beautiful," he smiles lazily.

"Oh my God," Michael comments casually, too buzzed to actually react. If he were completely sober he’d have easily just smacked the top of his head.

"Like diamonds in the sky."

"You are ridiculously drunk," Michael points out.

"So are you," Gavin grins, noticing the slur in his words.

"Shut up."

"Ya’know, I’ve always wondered why you’ve always hated me so much," he furrows his eyebrows in concentration at the subject, obviously giving up completely on playing.

"Focus on the game, idiot." Michael rolls his eyes as he fights zombies away from Gavin’s inactive character, "You’re going to die."

He completely ignores the warning, “I’ve always wanted us to be friends.” Michael tries to tune him out but he just continues rambling, “I’ve always thought you were really cute too. Even when you’re glaring at me or talking bad about me to Ray or Lindsay.”

"You’re drunk." Michael states, still refusing to look at him, "You don’t know what you’re saying."

"I do so! It’s only because I’m drunk that I’m able to say it now. Sober Gavin would never have the confidence to say something about his feelings towards you."

That finally makes him break eye contact with the screen and look over at his drunken partner with a raised eyebrow, “Feelings?”

"Yeah," he nods, growing more confident as he says the word, "I have feelings for you. Always have."

Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the sleep deprivation from the endless nights taking care of Hamish, maybe it was his mind finally coming to terms with the fact that he’s sitting here with the boy he hates actually having a good time. But when he looks into Gavin’s eyes something suddenly clicks inside of his brain.

Before he can even think it through, he’s pressing his lips to Gavin’s.

No quiet hesitance or nervously staring into each other eyes before slowly leaning in like last night, just full commitment and sticking to it.

He’s soft, warm, and inviting, immediately responding with eager happiness. He can feel the smile in it and if his mouth wasn’t currently occupied he’d be laughing right now.

It’s fast and sloppy, just them trying to get as close to one another as possible in the least amount of time. As though they’re scared that their brains will catch up to these actions and stop them before this goes on for too long.

Michael ignores the tiny voice in his head that tries to tell him that this is a bad idea. He’s crossing lines that he had no idea he’s even set for himself. When Gavin’s tongue enters his mouth, he just decides fuck the lines.

He’s drunk and this feels good, why the hell is his brain trying to over complicate things.

He lets the controller slip from his hands and finds that resting them on Gavin’s hips is much more beneficial. Gavin responds by wrapping his own arms around Michael’s neck in a successful attempt to pull them closer.

His brain is just a numb mixture of happiness, pleasure, and slight confusion. But he pushes that last part to the back of his head and focuses more on the feeling of Gavin climbing into his lap so that their positioning isn’t as awkward.

All he knows is that right now this feels right. More than right. It makes him scold his past self for inexplicably hating Gavin when instead they could have been doing this with their time.

Gavin pulls away just long enough to murmur out the word, “Bedroom?” against his lips.

Throwing all future consequences out of the window, he nods, making their current kiss messy. But he’s too buzzed on the alcohol and teenage hormones to actually care.

"Yeah."


	7. Chapter 7

Michael is awoken by the sound of somebody loudly clearing their throat, obviously trying to wake them. At first he thinks it’s Gavin, but when he groggily opens his eyes, he sees a women standing beside the bed. His eyes widen and suddenly he’s completely awake.

Fuck. He’s in bed with Gavin, naked, as his mother is standing there with her hands on her hips.

"Oh!" he cries when he first sees her, "Uh, h-hello, Mrs. Free."

"It’s Mrs. Ramsey, sweetie. But you can just call me Griffon." She smirks, and Michael knows she’s just dragging this out because its amusing to watch him squirm.

How does one even get them self into a situation like this? At least she isn’t yelling at him or kicking him out of the house.

"Okay…" He manages, trying to seem as least awkward as possible, but it’s obviously not working. Griffon continues to stand there, as though this is some kind of

"I’m, um… I’m Michael. I’m Gavin’s Life Studies partner."

"Yes, I know. He’s told us a bit about you."

"Ah."

He tries to casually nudge Gavin awake in a way that doesn’t seem panicky, but the boy is quite the heavy sleepy. Eventually Michael just gives up on attempting to be nonchalant and straight out shoves him so harshly that he almost falls off the bed.

"Uh?!" He awakes with a start, sitting up in the bed immediately. He looks over to Michael first but quickly turns when he sees the glare on his face. His eyes widen when he sees his parental figure standing above him. "Oh! H-Hi, Griffon! Uh…"

"Good morning, Gavin."

"Um, can I have a friend sleep over?"

"Yeah, sure," she waves off the questions knowingly, "When?"

"…Yesterday." She raises an eyebrow but you can see the amusement in her eyes. He sighs, "How much trouble am I in?"

"None if Geoff doesn’t find out."

"You’re… not going to tell him?"

"Nah." She shrugs, "Michael seems like a nice guy. I don’t think he deserves to die so young."

"Is he home now?"

"Yes. He’s downstairs eating breakfast. Which is why I came up to wake you. Do you two boys want breakfast?"

"But-"

"I’ll tell him I gave you permission to have a  _friend_  over,” she snickers, “Now get dressed and come downstairs.”

"We really are just friends!" Gavin exclaims but Griffons already walking out of the room. Before she shuts the door she turns back at them with her eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"Right."

They sit there in awkward silence for a few moments, not really sure what to say since they’re only now acknowledging the fact that they actually slept together.

"So, uh," Gavin stutters out, "Do you want breakfast?"

"Yeah, sure," Michael nods, trying to keep the air as casual as possible.

He searches the room for his clothes, growing frustrated when they scattered miles away from one another. Were they really that desperate last night that they managed to throw their clothing halfway across the room? It’s only when he manages to find everything and quickly dresses himself that he really lets the realization kick in.

He and Gavin slept together.

Gavin Free.

The kid from school that he’s always claimed to hate.

Fuck. His life is officially a complicated teenage sitcom.

"We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to," Gavin murmurs, while hurriedly pulling a pair of jeans on.

Michael quirks a brow at that sentence and stops his clothing search to give him an odd look, “What?”

"What happened last night. I mean, we were both pretty drunk and I was an idiot-"

"Gavin, stop." he rolls his eyes, "We  _will_  talk about it. Just not right now. We should focus on actually finishing this dumb Life Science project and getting me out of your house alive.”

He isn’t sure if he’s blowing off the topic now just because he really does want to focus on the project, or if it’s because he has no idea what to think about all of this yet.

Luckily the joke lightens the air and Gavin chuckles, “Yeah, we’ll be lucky if Geoff doesn’t kick your arse.”

"Is he really that protective of you?"

Gavin finishes pulling his shirt over his head, “You have no idea. Come on.” Without thinking about it, he presses a quick but sweet kiss to Michael’s cheek before turning to leave his bedroom, not even realizing the affectionate action.

Michael smirks before calling out, “You forgot your baby.”

"I said for you to come on!" Gavin yells back, amusement in his tone.

He laughs out loud at the stupid joke, “I meant Hamish, you dumbass.”

*

Michael can’t help but feel slightly awkward as they walk down the stairs to join Gavin’s parents for breakfast.

They look the exact same in all of the pictures. Their arms are covered in colorful tattoo’s and they have piercing decorating their faces. Geoff has a thick brown beard and Griffon has her short blonde hair pulled into low ponytails.

"Hey Gavin, hey Gavin’s friend," Geoff greets them nonchalantly.

"This is Michael," Gavin introduces even though he’s sure Griffon’s already told him his name.

"My apologizes," he says sarcastically, "Hello, Michael."

He’s smiling but his eyes hold a threatening aspect to them that makes Michael think that maybe he really does know that the two boys really did just wake up together. Then again, Geoff seems to be the overprotective father type and it’s no surprise that he’s suspicious of him.

"I thought you two didn’t get back until Wednesday?" Gavin tries to ask innocently as they sit down, but his tone makes Geoff raise an eyebrow.

"We decided to leave early. Why? You try to have a party while we were out or something?"

"N-No!"

"Cause you know where the booze is if you want to."

Gavin rolls his eyes all of his nerves dropping at the comment. So much that he easily falls into a casual conversation without even realizing it,

"Yeah, and I’ll invite all of my friends. Ray will have so much fun."

"We all know Ray doesn’t drink. We need to fix that kid."

"Speaking of him, he and Lindsay are apparently having a really tough time with their doll." Michael enters the conversation, "Ray still refuses to help."

"You two should go over and help them," Griffon says, "If you want we’ll babysit your doll for you."

"Thanks, that’d be awesome!" Gavin says excitedly, "I told Lindsay the other day that we would have a play-date just to take some stress off of her, but it’ll be easier if we don’t have to worry about Hamish too."

"We’re just kick ass grandparents like that," Geoff grins while taking the baby out of it’s car seat to hold it. It’s obvious that he thinks the entire situation is amusing too and is mainly just mocking them.

"What’d Ray and Lindsay even name their baby?" Gavin questions, realizing that he’s never asked before now.

"Kitty."

He raises an eyebrow, “Kitty?”

"Yeah, you know how Lindsay is about cats. But they compromised like us and Ray got to pick the middle name." Michael smirks.

"Oh God, I can’t wait to here this."

"Kitty Master Chief Narvaez."

"That’s so ridiculous."

"Almost as ridiculous as Hamish Mogar Jones-Free!"

"I think it’s a beautiful name."

"You named you’re fake baby  _Ham_ ish?” Geoff questions, pronouncing it the same incorrect way Michael first did. Gavin whines as Michael throws his head back in laughter.

*

"I like your parents, they’re even cooler than I thought they would be," Michael tells him as they get out of the car. They’ve already left Hamish with Geoff and Griffon, and drove the short distance to Ray’s house.

"Yeah, they’re pretty top," he grins, "Sometimes their just as childish as me though."

"Oh yeah?"

"Two weeks ago when we had that big thunderstorm, we all took turns running outside in the freezing rain for like half an hour. Geoff ended up falling down and getting a bloody knee. It was hilarious."

"You convinced your own parents to play in the rain?"

"It was Griffon’s idea!" he says as they walk up to the door, "She thought it would be hilarious. We got the whole thing on video, even Geoff accidentally losing his towel afterwards and flashing the camera."

"You have a weird family," Michael snickers.

"Well get used to it because that’s what you’ve married into, love," Gavin gives him a cheeky grin as he knocks on the door.

Lindsay answers the door with tired eyes and she looks about ready to squeal with happiness at their presence. “Oh, you guys really  _are_  going to come help! I thought Gavin was just joking around.”

She hugs both of them quickly and they laugh. “Don’t worry, we’re here to save the day.”

"Where’s Hamish?" she asks.

"Geoff and Griffon offered to babysit while we came over here."

"Lucky," she mutters, "I wish my parents were so nice. Even Ray’s parents try to stay away from helping as much as possible. Some crap about how it’s our baby and it’s our responsibility."

"Where’s the baby now?" Michael asks as they walk through the house.

"With it’s stupid father."

When they enter the living room they can hear the violent button mashing and sounds of guns firing from the television. Ray is sat on the couch, an X-Box controller in his hands, concentrating only on the screen in front of him.

The baby is sitting in it’s car seat next to him, also facing the screen, and has an X-Box controller resting in it’s lap.

"Hey, guys," he greets them casually.

"Ray," Gavin scolds, "You’re supposed to be helping Lindsay take care of the baby."

"I  _am_  helping!” he argues, still not taking his eyes away from the game, “Kitty Master Chief Narvaez and I are perfecting this game together.”

"I don’t think that qualifies as helping."

"Of course it does, we’re bonding. He’s gonna grow up to be a real little achievement hunter."

"That’s not even a real thing."

"Do you see what I’ve had to deal with!?" Lindsay exclaims with exhaustion, her arms still crossed.

"Well luckily you’ve got the best daddies in the world to help you! Come here, Kitty," Gavin coos as he takes the baby out of it’s car seat, "Uncle Gavvy is going to take care of you and let mommy have a break."

Michael snickers at the sight but at this point he’s used to Gavin being overly affectionate with the baby dolls. He acts like this with Hamish too, but it’s amusing to see that he’s this playful with other dolls as well. He wonders what Gavin would be like with a real baby, and if he’d be this relaxed and calm around them when they’re sleeping.

He only snaps out of it when he feels Lindsay’s cold glare on him.

"What?" he asks uneasily. Lindsay has a knack for figuring things out. She’s like the Sherlock Holmes of his friends and usually that isn’t a good thing.

She doesn’t stop her stares until he can see realization flood her eyes. He raises an eyebrow in confusion at her expression. She grabs him roughly by the elbow and begins to drag him out of the room and towards the stairs.

"Let’s go discuss parenting methods in my room!" she says loud enough for the two others to hear.

"Uh, okay?" he doesn’t argue or question it, knowing that something is up.Gavin and Ray don’t even respond, too busy playing with the doll and their game.

Lindsay pulls him into her room and slams the door shut behind them, leaving no room for him to protest against her rough handling.

"Something happened." Lindsay states outright, "Spill."

His eyes widen and now he knows what’s going on. It was literally only hours ago that he and Gavin had woken up next to each other, but it seems like forever ago. The weird thing about it is that it isn’t even a topic that really concerns him.

"How’d you even know?!"

"I’m Lindsay. I know everything. Now tell me."

Avoiding or denying the subject won’t do anything for him except get him a bruise on the shoulder. Lindsay will not hesitate to take violent measures if it means getting some good gossip, and gossip involving Michael and Gavin’s blooming friendship is definitely good.

"Uh… Gavin and I… might have slept together." he tries to mumble out the last part but judging by her eyes widening, she’s heard it clear as day.

“ _What_?!”

He sighs and rolls his eyes like a disobedient child that’s just been caught by his mother, “We slept together.”

"I heard you!" she exclaims, her eyes wide, "I just couldn’t believe it! I thought you hated Gavin Free!"

"I do!"

She raises an eyebrow in disbelief, much like Griffon did this morning.

"It’s true! I hate everything about him. His stupid British accent, his fucked up hair. His dumb made up words. Those annoying squeaking noises he makes when he’s laughing too hard."

Lindsay squints at him for a long time, “You totally  _love_  all those things about him, don’t you!?”

"Hey! Lets not go throwing around the L word, okay? I can hardly tolerate the guy."

"Were you tolerating him last night when you were-"

He cuts her off, not wanting her to continue that sentence, “Shut up.”

"I can’t believe you got yourself into this mess. You told me just a few days ago that you hated Gavin! And now you two are sharing bed sheets?"

"It’s not like that, okay! I do still hate him! We just got kind of drunk last night and… Well…" He trails off, unsure of how to continue. But when he sees Lindsay’s face he snaps at her, "Just shut the fuck up. It’s complicated."

"I think the only complicated thing now is you’re refusal to admit that you actually like Gavin."

"Well, we’re kind of friends now, I guess."

"You two have had sex and a baby together. I’m pretty sure you’re way past friends."

He buries his face in his hands, wishing all of these petty teenager problems could just melt away and he could go back to forcing himself to hate Gavin Free.

"Come on…" She grins, "You can tell me."

It’s quiet for a long time, and instead of looking into her hopeful eyes he stares down at his feet, glaring at them as though they’re the cause of all his problems.

"Fine." He mutters, trying to keep his voice as low and incomprehensible as possible, "Maybe I kind of think he’s cute."

Of course she hears it anyway and starts squealing like a five year old, “I knew it! Ray and I were right all this time! You and Gavin are totally banging and now we can all finally hang out like normal friends.”

"Stop it!" he groans, "We came here to help you with your baby, not play hostage therapist."

"Okay, okay, fine," she grins, and tries to resist the urge to squeal, "I’m just so happy for you."

"Why?"

"Because now that you’ve finally admitted it to yourself, you and Gavin can start dating and live happily ever after."

"The real world doesn’t work like that, Linds."

"Well why not? He likes you, you like him, you’ve already slept together," she lists off easily while Michael winces at each one, "I don’t see the problem. Don’t complicate this even more than it already is. Just tell Gavin you like him and then you guys can decide from there if you want to start dating. So help me God, Michael Jones, if you try to sweep this under the rug and pretend it’s never happened, I am going to lock you into the closet that you’ve just recently come out of and let you starve to death in there."

"Jesus Christ, Lindsay, okay," he says, leaning back a little from her threatening glare, "Has taking care of a baby really been this hard on you?"

"Yes."

*

The two spend the rest of their day taking care of Kitty Master Chief Narvaez while letting Lindsay get a few hours of sleep. Ray still continues to not help and just plays his game the entire time, but the three still laugh and joke around without any arguments or discussion of last night.

Lindsay will probably give Ray the entire scoop after they leave anyways, but it’s nice to just pretend that everything is normal while they’re here.

Gavin bounces in his seat the entire car ride home, chatting about how he’s worried that Geoff’s done something to Hamish and that they’ll probably find him tattooed and pierced up.

But when they enter the house they see Geoff sitting on the couch, casually drinking a beer with the baby resting in his hands.

"Oh look, the parents are home!" he calls out sarcastically, "You’re little bitch son wouldn’t stop crying the entire time but of course you come back as soon as he falls asleep."

"Aww, he probably missed us!" Gavin coos while taking the doll from his arms, "Isn’t that right Hamish Mogar?"

"Is this what you’ve had to deal with all weekend?" Geoff raises an eyebrow at Michael.

"Yep."

"You poor soul." he mutters, "Come on, let’s play some video games before you two go to bed."

They spent their entire day over at Ray’s, helping out with the baby who is a lot more cranky and attention needing than their own. It’s nice to just relax again after all of that and then go to bed early.

They still have school tomorrow and it’s already eight o’clock. Hamish might not be as quiet as he was last night so they know they should squeeze in as much sleep as possible.

"Is Michael staying over again tonight?" Geoff asks, still unaware that he’s been staying over for the entirety of the project. It reminds Michael to yell at Gavin later for not even asking his parents for permission before inviting him to stay over all weekend.

"Yeah."

"Where did he sleep last night?"

"My room." he responds, not thinking about his answer.

"Excuse you?" Geoff raises a suspicious eyebrow at him which causes Gavin to stop focusing on their game entirely.

"I slept on the floor, he slept on the bed, Geoff. I swear, even ask Griffon, she was the one who came in to wake us up!" he attempts to reassure him quickly.

Geoff raises a suspicious eyebrow and looks back and forth between the two boys before deciding to let it go.

Michael wants to laugh at the relief on Gavin’s face.

*

"I’ll sleep on the floor tonight," Michael suggests as he walks into the bedroom.

"No, it’s fine, I will."

"Dude, I made you sleep on the floor for the first two nights. I think I deserve to sleep on the floor for at least one. It isn’t fair to you."

Gavin smirks, “As if you’ve ever cared about being fair to me.”

He laughs and passes off the baby to Gavin so that he can get dressed for bed.

"I don’t want to give Hamish back," Gavin murmurs, looking down at the motionless doll as it sleeps in his arms. He cradles it with care as though it’s a real baby in need of soothing.

"We can’t keep him, he belongs to the school," Michael points out, not bothering to mention how ridiculous the idea is.

"What if we just ran away?" he looks up, a mischievous glint in his eyes that makes Michael smile, "We could just pack up everything right now, strap Hamish into his car seat, and take off in the dead of the night."

"Our faces would be plastered all over the news as child kidnappers. We’d have to live the rest of our lives in hiding."

"It’d be worth it. We would never be separated from our darling child and could live forever as farmers or something," he snickers, then drops the playful subject, "I’ve really liked this project a lot more than I thought I would. At the same time I want it to both last forever and end as soon as possible."

Michael watches Gavin cooing down at the baby, smiling sadly at the thought of passing it in tomorrow and the project finally reaching it’s end. If he had to admit it, he’d say that he’s kind of sad that it’s over too.

Gavin is an annoying asshole that still makes him want to rip his hair out and Hamish is a robotic baby designed to do nothing more than sleep, eat, shit itself, and cry. But overall this entire experience was fun. There are a lot of things to complain about overall, but it’s cancelled out by all of the good moments.

He’d never thought he’d be in Gavin Free’s room, casually getting changed in front of him, discussing babies and reminiscing about the recent hectic days that they’ve managed to survive.

But maybe it isn’t the baby he had grown so attached to. Maybe it was just Gavin. Spending time with him, fighting with him, laughing with/at him, getting drunk with him, yelling at him, etc. He doesn’t want the project to end because he doesn’t want his time with  _Gavin_  to end. And when he finally realizes that it scares him.

"I think I want to keep him," Gavin continues with the silly joke.

I think I want to keep  _you_ , Michael thinks to himself.


	8. Chapter 8

When Gavin and Michael walk into the Life Science classroom the next day, Mr. Burns is already calling partners up to pass in their babies and marking things down in his teacher’s book after he plugs the doll into his computer.

The entire class is talking nonstop. Some cooing over how cute their baby is and how much they’ll miss it, some looking like zombies ready to make a bed out of the floor. Some raving about how their partners did nothing and they had to do all of the work, and others complaining about how much their baby cried or refused to shut up.

"Did you enjoy it, Lindsay?" Gavin asks her while placing their car seat on the ground by their desks.

She glares at him as she lifts her head off of the table, prepared to fall asleep at any moment.

"I’ll take that as a no."

"I had a great time," Ray pipes up with a lazy grin, "It was a lot of fun. We should raise a baby again some time, Lindsay."

"I’m going to kill him after we get out from school," she mutters.

"Did you guys already pass in your baby?" Michael asks.

"Yes, thank God. I am officially done with that thing and I never have to deal with it again."

Gavin pats her hair, trying to comfort her in some way. It appears to work because she lays her head back down on the desk.

"I’m assuming that we did not have as great as a time as you two did though," Ray says, a mischievous smirk on his face.

"Shut the hell up, Ray," Michael states, not wanting to deal with this subject right now. He knew Lindsay would end up telling Ray all about it but he and Gavin have agreed to not talk about it until after the project was over.

"Michael Jones and Gavin Free," Mr. Burns calls out.

And that’s about to be very soon.

Michael still has very mixed feelings about this project ending.

On one hand he’s happy because now he doesn’t have to deal with Gavin anymore. He’s free from his stupidity and is no longer trapped having to put up with him for a dumb school project. No more crying babies to keep him up all night and no more Gavin to pester him.

But he’s also disappointed for the same reasons. Sure, it was hectic and annoying, but it was fun. He and Gavin got really close during it, even closer than Michael is willing to admit. A part of him is kind of scared that once all of this is over with and done, they’ll talk about everything and then decide to part ways and pretend nothing really happened.

He’s still not sure what he wants in the long run.

Going back to hating Gavin sounds easier. Everything’s a lot more quiet and calm when he doesn’t have a bouncy excited British kid making it his life goal to annoy the shit out of him everyday. Gavin does that regardless but he can only imagine how much that will intensify if he agrees to hang out with him on a regular basis.

Mr. Burns lets out a deep laugh as they walk up to his desk. Michael’s reminded of the fact that Gavin and he actually know each other really well outside of school and it also explains the few times that Gavin’s accidentally called him “ _Burnie_ " during class, only to get called " _British Twink_ " in return. Gavin seems to have that kind of playful parental relationship with all of the adults in his life.

"Can’t wait for this one," he grins, "How much verbal abuse did this baby bear witness to?"

"Ah, ah, ah!" Michael argues, "You aren’t grading us on that."

"Lucky for you," Mr. Burns mutters while hooking up the baby to his computer via a cable. The information comes up on the screen but doesn’t make any sense to either of the boys.

"How did we do?" Gavin leans as close to the screen as he can, trying to understand it, "We took good care of him, I swear! We were the best parents ever!"

Mr. Burns smirks and shakes his head with amusement while pushing Gavin away, “You guys did fine. Actually better than fine. You have one of the highest grades in the class, which I really didn’t expect from you two.”

"You put us together  _expecting_ us to fail, didn’t you?” Michael accuses.

He shrugs, “Yeah, and because I thought it was really damn funny.”

"Well, we’ve sure proved you wrong, didn’t we?" Gavin beams at him, "We should get some kind of reward or something."

"Yes, and it’s an A on this project. Now go sit your asses down, I have other projects to check."

On their way back to their seats Gavin grins at him, “We did it, Michael!”

Michael just shoves his shoulder playfully in return.

He feels like he should be say something here. Something like, ‘Finally, now I never have to deal with you again,’ or ‘Good, now get the hell away from me,’ but those words are buried under the buzzing happiness he feels when Gavin smiles like that.

*

_Michael: Want me to drive you home from school?_

_Gavin: I would hope so. I kind of forgot to tell Lindsay that I needed a ride, I’m just so used to getting rides with you now._

_Michael: I’ve literally taken you home after school twice, Gavin._

_Gavin: I’m forgetful okay?_

Michael figures that driving Gavin home will give them the opportunity to talk about… whatever the hell has been happening with their relationship lately.

But of course his shitty luck leaves him with having Mrs. Grover for his last class of the day, and she decides to hold him back again to talk about his attitude in class.

Seriously? He didn’t even do anything today. He didn’t talk back to her, didn’t curse at other students, and didn’t fall asleep this time. All he did was forget to do his homework, but he shouldn’t be blamed for that! He was too busy raising a baby. Not like that’s really his excuse, he just hates this class and knows that the homework doesn’t mean shit in it.

He could have did it during class today, but he was too busy thinking about Gavin. All of this bullshit drama that’s going on between them refuses to leave his head. They said they would talk about it, but he still has no idea what he wants to say.

Friends until the project ended. That was their deal, wasn’t it?

When he finally leaves the school building and walks out into the parking lot, it’s pretty empty. Mostly everybody has gone home as quickly as possible in order to get Monday done and over with.

Except there’s Gavin, sitting on the hood of his car, playing with his phone without a care in the world.

He’s pretty lucky that Gavin didn’t decide to just give up and leave anyways. He could have easily phone Geoff to come get him, which probably would have ended with Michael getting his ass kicked. (He has enough evidence to know that Geoff is extremely protective of his adopted son.)

"Gav!" he calls out to get his attention.

His head shoots up immediately and he shows off a toothy grin, “What took ‘ya so long, ‘ya dope?”

Michael opens his mouth to answer but Gavin cuts him off.

"Wait, let me guess," he puts up a hand as though to physically stop him from talking, "Mrs. Grover?"

He nods, “Yeah.”

"Man, you just can’t catch a break with her, huh?"

"No, you’re lucky you don’t have her for anything. She is just awful."

"You poor soul," Gavin teases.

"It’s weird to talk to one another without hearing a baby’s crying in the background," Michael muses. They should probably be getting into the car at this point and begin driving home, but neither move from their spot.

"Yeah, I don’t miss that doll as much as I thought I would have," Gavin grimaces at the memories of it’s crying.

Michael snickers, “I was scared I’d come out here and find you crying your eyes out.”

"I wasn’t  _that_ attached to him, Michael!” he argues, but his smile is just as wide.

Empty high school parking lot, Gavin sitting on the hood of his car. God, can this get anymore cliche? At least it isn’t raining.

It’s silent between them for a few moments, and it’s apparent to both of them that now is finally the time to have that conversation. Where they finally talk about the fact that they slept together and what’s going to happen now. There’s no more baby doll project to focus on or use as an excuse.

Michael’s about to speak, but Gavin begins before him.

"So, I was thinking a lot about how close we got while taking care of the baby. And the fact that we…" he trails off, unsure of how to approach the subject, "…Totally tried to give it a sibling."

Michael closes his eyes and resists the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, “Don’t say it like that.”

Gavin tries his hardest not to smile as he murmurs out an “Okay.”

Michael sighs, deciding to just skip past the usual dumbassery and just jump straight into the actual conversation. “I’ve been thinking about it too.”

He raises his eyebrows in confusion, as though completely taken off guard by this information, “Really?”

"Well, obviously." Michael rolls his eyes, "I happened to be there too."

"I just figured that you would try to ignore it and hate me even more than you already do."

He sighs, “I don’t hate you, Gav.”

Gavin doesn’t respond, and just stares at him. He isn’t able to make out if it’s disbelief or anticipation in his eyes.

"Maybe I never really have," Michael shrugs, "I mean, don’t get me wrong. You’re still an annoying asshole."

Gavin smiles, and he’s practically bouncing with excitement, just waiting for the final confirmation.

His brain is screaming at him to throw out some kind of excuse. Then he can brush this entire subject off with as little awkwardness as possible and just get away from Gavin forever.

It was just sex, wasn’t it?

They’re teenagers. They can practically breathe orgasms. This is what growing up is all about, right? Just finding somebody willing to sleep with you, have some sex, then go on to find the next person. Only stopping when you’ve found the person that you decide, ‘Hey, I kind of like what  _we_ have going on. I’m not really that interested in replacing you yet.’

Maybe that’s a bad explanation, but Michael figures that’s as basic as he’s able to think about it. Dumbing down serious matters like this makes it easier to come up with solutions. But now all it’s really succeeding in doing is making him come to realizations he didn’t intend on.

Does he feel that way about Gavin? Is he really willing to give up living his teenage years as a single guy with nobody to worry about besides himself, to spend them with Gavin Free?

What happened to the days where he hated him? Instead of wanting to punch the guy in the face, he wants to playfully shove and wrestle with him. Instead of screaming profanities, he wants to affectionately call him an idiot. Instead of pretending like he doesn’t exist, he kind of wants to spend every waking moment with him.

Not exactly what goes through the mind of a normal teenage boy with a crush, but the two of them have never exactly been normal, so what makes him think that they’d ever be a normal couple?

They can be the couple that spends their time yelling at one another, calling each other names, purposely trying to piss off the other as much as possible, and then occasionally have hardcore makeout sessions before clothes start coming off.

The more Michael thinks about that, the more it begins to grow on him.

He doesn’t think he can go back to hating Gavin now that he’s had a taste of what being with him is like. Because it’s more than just the sex. It’s the sound of his giggling when he makes stupid jokes, the slur to his voice when he’s had to much to drink, the weight of his feet in Michael’s lap when he’s sprawled out across the couch, and his insistence on having as much fun as possible even if he looks like a complete idiot in the end.

He wants to have Gavin all to himself, the negatives and positives. He wants to wrap his arms around the boy and not let anybody else have him.

After saying it there’s no going back. No taking back the admission that’s he’s outright said his feelings. He’ll be stuck with Gavin for who knows how long. It’ll be like living the baby project everyday, minus Hamish.

But maybe he doesn’t really mind that.

Maybe he doesn’t really mind Gavin as much as he used to. All the things he’s found annoying and insufferable about the boy before the project, are no longer thought about in annoyance, but rather with an amused smile on his face. He didn’t realize how much spending time with Gavin has completely changed his perception of him.

The idea of hanging out with Gavin isn’t so bad now.

The idea of Gavin himself isn’t so bad now.

Not even the way he’ll ask the most idiotic questions, his refusal to pay attention to anything said to him, his insistence on making ridiculous bets for money, how loud he sings when he’s drunk, his general clinginess, his inability to walk across a flat surface without tripping up over his own two feet and landing on his nose, etc.

All of those negatives things have either become amusing positives or are completely replaced by others. Like the way Gavin’s nose crinkles when something disgusting happens, those high pitched squeaks he lets out when he’s laughing too hard, and the way he’s just always so enthused about everything around him.

(Man, he’s just  _made_  of sappy Gavin-lists today.)

Michael figures he’s already gotten used to it all. So much that the prospect of it being taken away annoys him even more than the actual traits themselves. He just likes Gavin. Good and bad.

It’s ridiculous that it took a fake baby doll for him to recognize it.

God, domestic life has really fucked with his brain.

"Maybe I kind of like you." It’s such a vague and hesitant statement, but he says it so matter-of-factly, staring straight into Gavin’s eyes.

He figures if he’s going to do this, he isn’t going to be blushing and giggling like a little girl. If Gavin rejects him, then oh well. He’ll just punch him and try to forget ever having feelings for the annoying little Brit. But the thought of that actually happening makes his stomach twist uncomfortably.

"I like you too."

Michael nods, resisting the urge to let out a sigh of relief when he sees the smile on Gavin’s face grow even wider.

"Do you want to maybe… I don’t know," he shrugs, "Go out on dates or something?"

Gavin wraps his arms around Michael’s neck, bringing them closer together with such nonchalance that you would think this is an everyday thing. “Are you asking me to be your boyfriend?”

That question should make him roll his eyes. It should make him want to push Gavin away and call him a moron. This is his last opportunity to get away and not be tied down to the childish prick that he’s always claimed to hate.

"Yeah," he nods while trying to pretend that there’s still space between them.

"Michael Jones," Gavin states professionally but his grin gives it away, "It would be my  _honor_  to be your boyfriend.”

Michael chuckles, trying to keep the blush off of his face when Gavin gives him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Cool,” he tries to keep his speech nonchalant and indifferent even though he’s giddy with joy on the inside.

Gavin shrugs, also trying to keep up the uncaring facade, “You are my baby’s daddy after all.”

He raises an eyebrow and rolls his eyes before muttering, “You’ve really gotta stop saying that.”

Gavin just grins before finally closing the space between them.


End file.
